Here are five things to know:
1. Ms. Leavitt reiterated that the retraction is “NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” but a rescission of the original Jan. 27 memo written by Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. The reason behind the retraction was “to end any confusion created by the court’s injunction,” Ms. Leavitt wrote.
The retraction also comes after Judge Loren AliKhan paused the White House’s funding freeze attempt until Feb. 3, CNBC reported.
2. The initial memo, obtained by The Washington Post, was sent directly to federal agencies ordering most activity to be temporarily paused, effective at 5 p.m. Eastern time Jan. 28. It required each agency to “complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects and activities that may be implicated by any of the president’s executive orders.”
The memo said that more than $3 trillion of the nearly $10 trillion spent by the federal government in fiscal 2024 was federal financial assistance such as grants and loans. Prior to the retraction, the review was to ensure taxpayer dollars are used effectively, with findings from agencies initially requested to be reported to the OMB by Feb. 10.
3. In the memo, Mr. Vaeth outlined recent healthcare priorities implemented under President Trump’s administration with which agencies should align, including improving healthcare access and outcomes, enforcing the Hyde Amendment and “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
4. Federal guidance on Jan. 27 said mandatory programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP would remain active under the pause. However, states and lawmakers reported nationwide outages affecting Medicaid portals on Jan. 28. Portal access in many states has since been restored, with some states reporting no interruption at all.