Stanford will not pause federally funded research activities following President Donald Trump’s freeze on federal agency spending, University President Jonathan Levin ’94 wrote to the Stanford community Tuesday morning.
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is responsible for administering the federal budget and overseeing the federal agencies, released a memorandum Monday instructing agency heads to temporarily pause all funding towards agencies and projects which may be implicated by Trump’s recent and forthcoming executive orders.
The OMB memo calls out agencies that provide “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)], woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
The pause was set to begin Tuesday at 5 p.m. EST, but a federal judge in the District of Columbia temporarily blocked the freeze in response to a lawsuit filed by the activist group Democracy Forward. A permanent decision is expected from the judge by Feb. 3.
Attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia are also expected to seek legal action blocking the order. Judge Loren AliKhan, who made the decision to temporarily block the order, said “I think there is the specter of irreparable harm,” as reasoning behind what she described as a “brief executive stay.”
Levin’s rapid response — which called the memo “broad” and the consequences “unclear” — included an instruction to “faculty, staff, students, and post-docs supported by federal funding [to] continue their normal activities.”
A notable exception is “instances in which a specific cease-and-desist order has been issued by a federal funding agency,” Levin wrote.
Stanford’s Office of Research Administration (ORA) provided suggestions to researchers working on federally funded projects by agency. For projects funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, ORA notes that “notices of new, continuing or supplemental funding will be delayed” and “awards currently under negotiation are on hold until further notice by the sponsor.” Projects funded by NASA are at risk of termination if the “project scope or agreement contains a [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility] requirement.”
Faculty and students concerned about federal funding can review ORA instructions or Administration Transition Information and Resources from the Council on Government Relations.
The OMB memo was signed by Matthew J. Vaeth, Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget. Vaeth assumed the acting directorship on Jan. 20, just after Trump’s inauguration. Vaeth has worked for OMB for the last 27 years, most recently as Assistant Director of Legislative Reference.
According to the memo, this pause will give federal agencies time to complete “a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs,” in order to align federal spending with Presidential priorities.
“The American people elected Donald J. Trump to be President of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar,” Vaeth wrote.
The memo criticized “the use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies” as a “waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”
Agencies have until Feb. 10 to submit a detailed report to OMB on the programs affected by this pause and to assign a senior officer, appointed by the president, to “ensure Federal financial assistance conforms to Administration priorities.”
The OMB hopes that by pausing funding, reviewing programs and assigning political overseers, they can redirect the federal budget towards “eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending ‘wokeness’ and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,” Vaeth wrote.
Recognizing the unprecedented nature of this memo, Levin’s email said “these developments are extraordinary and disruptive.”
Acknowledging the concern and confusion in the Stanford community, he added that the administration is working “to get more information and determine next steps with a keen understanding of how vital these funds are to the research and education mission of the university.”