An Impoundment By Any Other Name

A Monday night memorandum issued by the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB") ordered federal agencies to "temporarily pause" all federal funding and other agency activities that "may be implicated by" the slew of executive orders Trump issued last week. The directive jeopardizes hundreds of billions of dollars of federal funding, including funds already obligated via award contracts. Several of Trump's underlying executive orders do the same, purporting to, e.g., "pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act ... or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act." The result has been chaos and confusion. Affected parties include states and municipalities, nonprofit organizations, and private entities that were awarded federal funds to tackle issues related to energy and climate, healthcare, infrastructure, and other critical policy domains.