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January 30, 2025

White House Rescinds Memo Freezing Trillions of Dollars of Federal Grants and Loans
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The White House on Wednesday rescinded a memo from the Office of
Management and Budget that briefly froze trillions of dollars of federal
grants and loans, even though the money has already been appropriated by
Congress. The order set off panic and mass confusion across the federal
bureaucracy, briefly disrupting funding for Medicaid, housing and other
public services Tuesday before a federal judge put a temporary hold on
the plan. On Wednesday, a second federal judge, U.S. District Judge Jack
Mc Connell in Rhode Island, signaled he, too, would block the Trump
administration from withholding federal disbursements, writing, "I am …
very concerned about the irreparable harm which has clearly been put
forth." On Wednesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted the
reversal was not a rescission of the federal funding freeze and said the
White House would continue to seek ways to eliminate funding for what it
called "woke ideologies."


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