White House Budget Office Orders Pause in all Federal Loans and Grants

The White House budget office has ordered a pause in grants, loans and other federal financial assistance, according to a memo sent to government agencies on Monday, potentially paralyzing a vast swath of programs and sowing confusion and alarm among the array of groups that depend on them.

The directive threatened to upend funds that course throughout the American economy: Hundreds of billions of dollars in grants to state, local and tribal governments. Disaster relief aid. Education and transportation funding. Loans to small businesses.

But the two-page memo from Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, left the scope of the pause, and much else, unclear.