White House illegally pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion

The White House budget office is ordering a pause to all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government,
according to a loosely worded internal memo, sent to agencies Monday,
-- creating significant confusion across Washington.

In a two-page document,
#Matthew J. #Vaeth, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, instructs federal agencies to
👉“temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.”

The memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, also calls for each agency to
👉perform a “comprehensive analysis”
to ensure its grant and loan programs are consistent with President Trump’s executive orders,
which aimed to ban federal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives,
and limit clean energy spending, among other measures.

The memo states its orders should
👉not be “construed” to impact Social Security or Medicare recipients,
and also says the federal financial assistance put on hold
“does not include assistance provided directly to individuals.”

But the document says programs affected are
👉“including, but not limited to, financial assistance for
#foreign #aid,
#nongovernmental organizations,
#DEI,
#woke #gender ideology,
and the #green #new #deal.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/27/white-house-pauses-federal-grants/

#LGBTQ English #Wikipedia deletion alert

Could you save this LGBTQ related #English Wikipedia article from deletion?

Voters of Tomorrow
* Voters of Tomorrow is an American left-leaning advocacy organization that promotes political engagement among Generation Z through online and on-campus efforts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voters_of_Tomorrow

#Student #Youth #Nongovernmental #Generation

📢#OutNow in #OA: '#Seabirds in the #NorthEast #Atlantic: #ClimateChange Vulnerability and Potential #Conservation Actions' by Henry Häkkinen, Silviu Petrovan, Nigel G. Taylor, William J. Sutherland & Nathalie Pettorelli.

This book was produced by the #Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge.

'#Seabirds in the #NorthEast #Atlantic' collates information from the #scientific #literature, #nongovernmental organisations’ reports, #conservation practitioner input and online databases into a single volume, and provides a reference manual to assist conservation planning.

It is intended to be used by anyone who wishes to identify #climatechange threats to #seabirds; to compare threats between different areas of the #NorthEast #Atlantic; to start a quantitative climate change vulnerability assessment for a #local population; or to review options for #conservation action in response to #climatechange.

Access at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0343

#EU ‘#ForeignAgents’ law spooks #NGOs – #POLITICO

"#BRUSSELS — The #EuropeanUnion is working on a #law that would force #nongovernmental groups, #consultancies and #academic #institutions to disclose any non-EU funding as part of a crackdown on #ForeignInfluence in the #bloc, three sources confirmed to POLITICO.
The planned #legislation, which is in very early stages, echoes similar laws in #Australia and the #UnitedStates. In the #US, the #ForeignAgentsRegistrationAct has required #lobbyists working on behalf of foreign governments to register with the federal government since 1938."

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-ursula-von-der-leyen-ngo-qatargate-foreign-agents-law-disturbs-ngos/