Alarm as Trump administration pauses all federal spending on grants and

Donald Trump’s second presidential administration has ordered a pause in all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government, potentially upending programs relied upon by millions of Americans.

In a two-page internal memo, Matthew Vaeth, Trump’s acting head of the office of management and budget (OMB), instructed all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance”.

Vaeth said that the pause does not include social security or Medicare – and that the assistance put on hold “does not include assistance provided directly to individuals”.

But the order is likely to affect universities, the non-profit sector, cancer research, food assistance, suicide hotlines, hospitals, community health centers, non-profits that help disabled veterans and many more. At a news conference on Tuesday morning Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader from New York, described the order as “a dagger at the heart of the average American families, in red states and blue states, in cities and suburbs and rural areas”.

Joined at the news conference by the Democratic senators Amy Klobuchar, Patty Murray, Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim, Schumer noted that among the programs potentially affected is Meals on Wheels, which provides hot meals to at-risk seniors and is partly funded by the federal government.

The halt in spending comes days after the US also immediately cut off all foreign aid, and was designed to ensure that financial assistance is in line with Trump’s policies, Vaeth wrote.

Federal agencies, he added, will halt spending affected by Trump’s recent executive orders that touch upon “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, [diversity initiatives], woke gender ideology, and the green new deal”.

The freeze in federal funding, set to take place on Tuesday afternoon, has thrown the future of a vast array of programs into uncertainty. There was no explanation as to whether the pause in question would affect Medicaid, food stamps, disaster assistance and other programs. The memo said it should be implemented “to the extent permissible under applicable law”.

While the US president administers federal spending programs, actual spending and budgets are determined by Congress. Democrats said Trump’s spending pause is “breathtaking” and “unprecedented” and will cause disruption to Americans’ day-to-day assistance.

“They say this is only temporary, but no one should believe that,” said Schumer.

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“Donald Trump must direct his administration to reverse course immediately and the taxpayers’ money should be distributed to the people. Congress approved these investments and they are not optional – they are the law.”

In reference to the National Institutes of Health, Klobuchar wrote on social media: “Are you stopping NIH cancer trials?”

Murray and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrats on the Senate and House appropriations committees, issued a letter to Vaeth expressing “extreme alarm”.

They wrote: “This administration’s actions will have far-reaching consequences for nearly all federal programs and activities, putting the financial security of our families, our national security, and the success of our country at risk.”

At the Democrats’ news conference Murray, the top Democrat on the chamber’s appropriations committee, called for a delay in consideration of Trump’s pick for budget chief, Russell Vought.

“The American people did not vote for this kind of senseless chaos,” Murray said. “Republicans should not advance that nomination out of committee until the Trump administration follows the law.”

The Democratic Virginia senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine also blasted the Trump administration’s order, calling it “reckless and illegal” in a joint statement.

“This is money that builds roads and bridges, helps small businesses make payroll, and makes our communities healthier, safer, and more economically competitive,” the statement added.

Bernie Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s order will have “a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of millions of children, seniors on fixed incomes, and the most vulnerable people in our country”.

“It is a dangerous move towards authoritarianism and it is blatantly unconstitutional,” said the senator from Vermont, adding that “our founding fathers explicitly gave Congress the power of the purse”.

“If President Trump wants to change our nation’s laws he has the right to ask Congress to change them,” Sanders added. “He does not have the right to violate the United States constitution. He is not a king.”

The Connecticut attorney general, William Tong, a Democrat, called the pause a “full assault” on families, adding that it is an “an unprecedented and blatantly lawless and unconstitutional attack on every corner and level of our government and economy”.

Tong said on Tuesday morning that attorneys general across the country were preparing imminent legal action.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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