This is a developing story.
Updated as of 1:45 p.m. Wednesday.
The White House rescinded the freezing of federal loans and grants Wednesday less than two days after the executive order was set to be issued after it “sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country,” according to the Associated Press.
The freezing of federal loans and grants by the White House was temporarily blocked by federal judge Loren L. AliKhan minutes before it was scheduled to be implemented, according to the Associated Press.
The disbursement of federal loans and grants from federal agencies was set to be temporarily paused, effective Tuesday at 5 p.m., according to an official memo from Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget on behalf of President Donald Trump.
Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Aid Officer App State Alison Rabil said the executive order will not impact Title IV federal financial aid funds for individual accounts. According to her, these include the following:
- Pell Grants
- Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, also known as SEOGs
- Federal Work Studies
- Direct Student Loans
- Direct Graduate Plus Loans
- Direct Parent Plus Loans
“We want families to feel secure that the aid that is on their packages is not going anywhere, that it will disperse, that we will continue to draw down those funds and disperse those funds as we always have,” she said.
The memo said that over $3 trillion spent by the federal government in the fiscal year of 2024 was dedicated toward deferral financial assistance.
“Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial aid burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending ‘wokeness’ and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,” the memo reads. “The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”
The memo requires federal agencies to “identify and review” federal financial assistance programs and “supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements.”
Each federal agency would be required to complete a comprehensive analysis of these assistance programs that may be implicated by any of the current executive orders signed by Trump, such as:
- “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”
Rabil said from her understanding, there will need to be additional information from her department reported to the Office of Management and Budget in order to comply with the memo and for the OMB to understand who they are providing funds to.
To comply, federal agencies would have to temporarily pause all activities and funding of federal financial assistance, including “financial aid assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal” which will “provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities.”
Federal agencies must, to the extent permissible by law, cancel already awarded funds that are in conflict with administration priorities.
The memo would require those impacted to report their information and analysis to the OMB no later than Feb. 10. OMB can grant exceptions allowing federal agencies to issue new awards on a case-by-case basis.
Rabil said other implications beyond the scope of individual financial aid on how the memo might impact App State are unknown, but that her department is “confident that that order doesn’t affect grants or loans to individuals that we make through financial aid.”
She said any students or families are welcome to contact the department with any questions or concerns by calling at 828-262-2190.
