The Trump administration rescinded a memo freezing federal loans and grants on Wednesday, Jan. 29, after causing widespread confusion and facing a series of legal challenges. The memorandum, issued on Monday by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), required all Federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, work gender ideology and the green new deal.”
The next day, the White House issued an OMB fact sheet which stated that “the pause does not apply across-the-board,” and that “any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process,” including programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), among others.
The order left many states, Pennsylvania included, sounding alarm bells. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told reporters that the computer systems which manage federally funded programs were inaccessible.
“We literally can’t access the payment systems that are used to run these programs every single day,” Shapiro said.
The memo was rescinded on Wednesday, though White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X blaming the confusion on the courts and media outlets: “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”
Beyond its contents, the order itself provided an early litmus test for how willing Republicans would be to defer to the party line, even if the funding freeze is temporary. Republican Rep. Don Bacon, from Nebraska, is among some who disagreed: “How are we supposed to defend [it] if we don’t know what’s coming out and what it really means?”
Other Republicans, such as Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, described the memo as Trump “testing his own authority. He’s getting some guidance that presidents have more authority than they’d traditionally used.”
Although Pennsylvanians may have held feelings of consternation over the OMB memo, some might celebrate Shapiro’s energy plan. Announced on Thursday, Jan. 30, Shapiro publicized his plans to strengthen Pennsylvania’s energy sector via the “Lightning Plan,” meant to streamline approvals for large-scale energy projects and improve generation capacity, all with emphasis placed on renewable resources.
Shapiro detailed the plan at the Pittsburgh International Airport, the site of a proposed $1.5 billion hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel project. The end goal is to boost Pennsylvania’s place as the nation’s second-leading energy producer while creating thousands of jobs and lowering energy costs.
“I believe we’ve got to take advantage of all kinds of energy production if we’re truly going to lead,” Shapiro said.
The “Lightning Plan” will notably incorporate two previous concepts unveiled by the governor last year, PACER and PRESS. PACER, the Pennsylvania Climate Emissions Reduction Initiative, calls for credits purchased by power plants that exceed emissions standards to be reinvested in the commonwealth—70% going to rebates for customers and 30% for clean energy projects. PRESS, the Pennsylvania Reliable Energy Sustainability Standard, would further diversify Pennsylvania’s energy portfolio by requiring all utilities to purchase 50% of their electricity from alternatives by 2035.
Though ambitious, the “Lightning Plan” is not likely to generate much support in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, as it does not align with the Trump administration’s emphasis on increased fossil fuel production. Additionally, bills for PRESS and PACER introduced last session gained little momentum.
Nathan Benefield, chief policy officer at the Commonwealth Foundation, stated his skepticism on the proposals: “All of these proposals that he talks about in the guise of reducing energy costs don’t reduce energy costs. Most would increase the costs for families and businesses.”
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry expressed similar sentiments, in that although tax incentives and permit improvements were “important measures,” they would ultimately be undermined by a carbon tax which would discourage “reliable energy production, eliminating jobs, and driving up costs for families and businesses,” Chamber President and CEO Luke Bernstein said. OMB Memo link: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25507011-omb-memo-on-temporary-pause-of-financial-assistance-programs/
