Kaine, Warner respond to Trump White House rescinding spending freeze memo

The White House budget office on Wednesday rescinded a controversial memo issued Monday that froze spending on more than $3 trillion in federal financial assistance, including grants and loans backing economic development and infrastructure projects across the nation.

In the two-sentence memo issued Wednesday, Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the Office of  Management and Budget, wrote: “OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded. If you have questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel. ”

U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, quickly responded. In a message posted to X around 2:21 p.m., Kaine called the Office of Management and Budget’s rescission  “good news.”

“We pushed hard for a day,” Kaine said in a video that he noted was filmed shortly after 1 p.m. “They’re backing up, but this ain’t over. We’re going to have to keep battling, and I’ve got your back.”

By 1:40 p.m., Karoline Leavitt, the new White House press secretary, posted on X that the memo was not a rescission of the federal funding freeze. “It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo,” she stated.

The point, she added, is to end confusion created by a federal judge who on Tuesday temporarily blocked Trump’s freeze on federal spending until at least Feb. 3.

The president’s executive orders on federal funding “remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented,” Leavitt wrote.

During a media call at 2:15 p.m., Warner didn’t mince words describing how he thinks the first days of the new presidential administration are going.

“He’s introduced chaos at a level that even makes the first term look organized,” he said.

Warner’s staff has heard concerns about the freeze, he said, from leaders in Virginia’s local governments, contractors who work for the state and nonprofit leaders.

“The idea that you’re going to freeze funding for 90 days means a lot of these operations have to fire a lot of folks,” Warner said.

The senator also appeared to call out leaders who’ve been quiet about the freeze.

“I just wish some of my Republican friends at the state level, the federal level, everywhere, would step up and say, ‘This doesn’t affect just red states or blue states. It affects the whole United States, and this will have draconian effects on people’s lives,’” Warner said.

A call to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office was not immediately returned Wednesday.

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, issued a statement about the pause of federal financial assistance.

“This temporary pause is meant to give agencies time to identify and review these programs and ensure compliance with law,” Griffith stated. “This is a prudent review by the new Trump administration to be careful stewards of taxpayer money.”

Trump’s freeze prompted questions about what happens to huge pending economic development projects in Virginia from Microporous, Micron Technologies and LS GreenLink, all of which were awarded hundreds of millions of federal dollars for projects expected to employ thousands of workers.

Virginia’s U.S. senators released a statement Tuesday eviscerating the freeze.

“In every corner of Virginia alone, there are enormous, game-changing economic developments projects happening right now that depend on federal spending appropriated by Congress. Whether it’s Helene recovery in Southwest [Virginia], … semiconductor manufacturing in Northern Virginia… pharmaceutical jobs in Richmond… renewable energy in coastal Virginia… or the Microporous expansion in Southside – every one of these projects is in part the result of federal funding from laws we fought tooth and nail to pass in Congress, and could now be endangered thanks to President Trump’s mess.”