President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday rescinded an order putting a widespread freeze on most federal grants and loans amid significant criticism, according to a new memo a source provided to NBC News. A senior administration official confirmed the rescission Wednesday. The initial order, which sparked chaos and confusion across Washington, was temporarily halted by a federal district judge Tuesday evening. The directive from the Office of Management and Budget came Monday night, directing 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, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal."

President Donald Trump’s budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing spending on federal grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Monday evening order from the White House Office of Management and Budget sparked uncertainty over a crucial financial lifeline for states, schools and organizations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington and left the White House scrambling to explain what would and wouldn’t be subject to a pause in funding. The people, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal guidance, confirmed that the OMB pulled the order Wednesday in a two sentence notice to agencies and departments.

The White House on Wednesday rescinded a far-reaching memo ordering a freeze to many federal disbursements — after a judge paused the order Tuesday evening. “OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded,” says a terse new memo to departments and agencies from acting White House budget director Matthew Vaeth that was first reported by NBC News. The memo had ordered that agencies “temporarily pause, to the extent permitted by law, grant, loan or federal financial assistance programs that are implicated by the President’s Executive Orders,” according to the Office of Management and Budget. The instructions resulted in confusion about what programs were impacted, prompting the White House to clarify that major benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare weren’t implicated.