Federal Grant Updates


February 4, 2025

Federal Funding Pause: Court Orders Provide Relief

Recent court rulings have halted the federal funding freeze, ensuring federally awarded programs can proceed while legal challenges are resolved. These restraining orders protect critical funding for the 麻豆传媒, allowing academic programs and federally funded initiatives to continue without disruption.

Key Legal Actions

  1. (No Expiration Date):
    A temporary restraining order (TRO) in National Council of Nonprofits, et.al., vs. Office of Management and Budget prevents federal agencies from suspending or impeding federally obligated funds, including grants and loans. The order challenges the federal freeze tied to and recent Executive Orders. It prevents the federal government from interfering with active awards unless they do so in accordance with the terms of each individual grant, and also prevents agencies from freezing or stopping funding while they review and evaluate current funding. This TRO remains in effect until further notice.

  2. (No Expiration Date):
    The U.S. District Court of Rhode Island issued a sweeping TRO prohibiting federal agencies, contractors, and grantees from freezing or restricting federal funding obligations unless explicitly authorized by law. Unlike the New York order, this TRO remains in effect until further notice.

What This Means for 麻豆传媒
For the 麻豆传媒, these rulings mean academic programs and other federally funded initiatives can continue without disruption. Both EOs provide a more stable safeguard for funding obligations. The University will continue monitoring developments closely to assess any changes to research, academic, or operational funding.

Guidance for Faculty and Staff
Faculty and staff involved in federally funded projects should:

  • Continue their work as planned unless directed otherwise by funding agencies.
  • Stay informed through internal updates and communications.

January 28, 2025

Executive Orders & Federal Grant Funding Pause: Impacts and Next Steps

What鈥檚 Happening: The Trump Administration has issued several Presidential Orders and Agency Guidance that may impact the University and its academic and research programs. This is a rapidly developing and evolving situation. The General Counsel鈥檚 Office and the Federal Relations team are reviewing and analyzing these actions to determine their impact on 麻豆传媒 and will provide updated guidance and information on this page as available. 

  • While these executive actions create a tremendous amount of uncertainty, for faculty and staff with a current federal award, we recommend that you continue work as planned unless you receive specific guidance or instructions from your federal agency sponsor.
  • General Counsel鈥檚 Office and the Federal Relations team are continuing to review and analyze this and other recent EOs to determine their impact on 麻豆传媒, and will provide updated guidance and information here as available.

The Latest: New guidance from the Trump Administration (OMB Memo M-25-13) institutes a temporary pause on federal grants and contracts through mid-February. 

  • The memo from the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires federal agencies to temporarily pause obligating or disbursing federal funding. It appears federal agencies will determine which programs and activities will be paused. 
  • During this pause, federal agencies have been instructed to conduct an analysis to ensure that all programs are consistent with President Trump's recent executive orders among other new Administration priorities. Completed analyses are due to OMB no later than Feb. 10, 2025. 

Student Pell Grants, Loans Unaffected: A spokesperson for the Department of Education has confirmed that, since the temporary pause does not impact 鈥渁ssistance received directly by individuals,鈥 Title IV [Higher Education Act] funds provided to individual students, such as Federal Pell Grants and Direct Loans, are not paused and will continue to be disbursed.

  • Similarly, the Department of Veterans Affairs has clarified that GI Bill payments do not fall under this order and will continue to be made to schools and students without change.

What Can I Expect? Given this timeline, we should expect the temporary pause to last several weeks as OMB will need to review all submitted analyses and then issue some kind of order lifting the pause. 

  • As we are actively reviewing this information to assess how it may impact your research projects, for now, continue with your business and operations as usual. We will provide further updates and guidance as we review and assess the information.

For faculty and staff preparing to apply for any kind of federal funding, we recommend you continue as planned. 

  • Please note that any current open notices of funding opportunities are subject to change, particularly any funding opportunity that discusses DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility).