Is this the end of SNAP Benefits? Find out if you will receive your February payment after Trump’s freeze
Chaos ensued after the Office of Management and Budget issued a vague memo ordering a pause to federal financial assistance. Here’s what it means for SNAP.
President Donald Trump kicked off his first week in office signing a flurry of sweeping executive orders to reshape the US federal government. His administration has also been moving quickly to implement new policies, perhaps too quickly in some cases.
On Monday, acting Office of Management and Budget Director Matthew Vaeth issued a memo ordering a “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs.” It called on “Federal agencies to identify and review all Federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with [President Trump’s] policies and requirements.”
While that was underway it ordered “to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by executive orders,” according to the memo.
Trump’s federal spending pause causes chaos
The freeze on federal disbursements, which was scheduled to go into effect at 5pm on Tuesday, set off a cascade of issues due to confusion caused by its vague wording. Most noticeably, the Medicaid reimbursement portal in all 50 states went offline.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt posted on social media that the administration was aware of the situation and expected that it would “be back online shortly.” She added that the White House had “confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent.”
The only programs that were specifically singled out not to be impacted were Medicare and Social Security. In the memo it said that the freeze on payments did not “include assistance provided directly to individuals,” but was targeted at “[a]ssistance that recipients or subrecipients receive or administer.” However, while the federal government doles out funds, many programs are administered by states or third parties leaving many bewildered.
White House calrifies which programs will still receive federal dollars
The late-night memo, which caught many by surprise, raised concerns across the spectrum of political affiliations from Washington to local governments as well as those who depend on those funds. To clarify the scope of the disbursement pause called for in the memorandum, additional guidance was issued on Tuesday.
It stated that “in addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause. Funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused.”
The guidance also advised any agencies that “are concerned that these programs may implicate the President’s Executive Orders, they should consult OMB to begin to unwind these objectionable policies without a pause in the payments.”
For the time being though, a federal judge shortly before the deadline for the pause issued a stay, blocking the policy from taking effect until February 3 at 5 pm ET.
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