On January  27, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo requiring all agencies to temporarily pause disbursement of federal assistance and submit to OMB information on impacted programs by February 10, 2025. That memorandum has raised significant questions about which programs would be affected and for how long. 

In response to this memorandum, on January 28, a lawsuit was filed in federal court challenging the Administration's authority to take this action. (A group of 23 state attorneys general also filed a separate lawsuit against the memorandum Tuesday afternoon). On the evening of January 28, a federal judge issued a short administrative stay, temporarily halting the funding freeze until 5 p.m. on February 3. This short stay will allow the court time “to deliberate when issues are not easy to evaluate in haste,” and permit the parties to fully brief the issues for the court.

A lot of uncertainty remains in the days ahead. ICMA staff are working with our federal partners to assess the impact to our members/local governments. We will continue to post updates to this page as the situation evolves:

• January 29 Update: OMB Rescinds Memo Pausing Federal Financial Assistance  On January 29,OMB rescinded the memorandum pausing all federal funding, but all executive orders remain in effect (see below). 
   
• January 28 Update #2: Federal Judge Temporarily Pauses Federal Funding Freeze
   
• January 28 Update: OMB Memo Providing Guidance on Federal Programs Impacted by Funding Freeze
   
• January 27: OMB Memo | Temporary Pause to Review Agency Financial Assistance Programs

Executive Orders:

• Protecting the American People Against Invasion
• Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid
• Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements
• Unleashing American Energy
• Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing
• Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government
• Enforcing the Hyde Amendment

UPCOMING EVENTS

Jan 31 | FREE WEBINAR | Impacts of Immigration Executive Orders on Local Governments  

RESOURCES

ICMA's Corporate Partner, The Ferguson Group, has been closely monitoring and providing updates on executive actions taken by the Trump administration. To ensure local governments have the most relevant and timely information, they have developed a series of Special Reports:

• "Executive Actions from the Second Trump Administration" – This report details the executive actions taken since President Trump entered office on January 20th that are most relevant to local governments.
• "Impact of Executive Action on Federal Funding" – This report examines how the Trump administration’s executive orders may affect federal funding.