Move Fast and Break the Government
"A letter from the Office of Management and Budget, obtained last night by The Bulwark, instructed federal agencies that they were to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” effective “on January 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM.”
What, exactly, does this mean? The note was vague, stating that the pause was for activities that “may be implicated by [Trump’s] executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.” But immediate speculation among those scrutinizing the letter was that things like food assistance, financial aid to students, grants for university-based research, and many other government functions could come to a stop. The scope of what could be impacted was honestly hard for them to comprehend.
“Nobody knows,” said one person on the receiving end of the memo, when asked the extent of the federal aid that would stop.
Perhaps that’s the point.
In recent days, agency officials and those dependent on government contracts have described being left in a state of darkness by the administration they now serve; like families cowering in their basement shelters waiting to go out to see the damage the tornado has caused. Getting guidance on what was now allowed and what was prohibited was hard to do, in part lobbyists and even Congress were no better informed.
Federal health and research agencies appear to be particularly confused. Over the weekend, several people posted online about their clinical cancer trials having come to an abrupt halt as the National Institutes of Health imposed restrictions on hiring, travel, communication, and other functions. The scientific and medical community was, rightfully, alarmed at the possibility that people suffering from deadly diseases would be denied treatment by their own government.
By Monday, the NIH finally issued some guidance. In another letter obtained by The Bulwark, acting NIH Director Matthew Memoli assured colleagues that, “Clinical trials at NIH or NIH-funded institutions are ongoing,” and that “travel restrictions do not apply to research participants traveling to NIH to participate in a clinical trial or protocol.”
A victory? Yes. But a limited one. In that same letter, Memoli said that no money would be available for “new studies, new equipment, or research services unrelated to the studies that were started prior to Jan. 20, 2025.” In other words, don’t make future plans.
And it’s not just at the NIH, either. Two people directly familiar with the matter told The Bulwark on Monday that the National Science Foundation abruptly canceled peer review panels. “All review panels scheduled for the remainder of this week, 1/28-1/31 will be rescheduled to a future date as appropriate,” read the guidance given. The NSF did not return repeated requests for comment. Nor has the White House over the past few days.
The breakneck speed of Trump’s orders could quickly turn into an acute constitutional crisis, with the executive branch essentially usurping the power of the purse from the legislative body. Certainly, it has already had profound political and psychological effects. Federal employees described utterly dispirited workplaces, where paranoia is creeping in. There is a belief that the new administration is set on turning the government into a tool for Trump and searching for the pretext to fire anyone unwilling to go along. It did not go unnoticed that the statement from the DOJ official announcing the firings on Monday noted that “Acting Attorney General James McHenry made this decision because he did not believe these officials could be trusted to faithfully implement the President’s agenda” (emphasis ours).
But it’s also not hard to see how the tremors being sent throughout the government could hurt Trump in the long run. It starts with small examples of over-compliance with the vague orders that the administration has to walk back, like the Air Force removing videos honoring the Tuskegee Airmen from training materials because they believe those videos violated the administration’s anti-DEI push. They move to larger problems, like prison guards who are responsible for securing ISIS militants no longer turning up for work because their salaries have been cut. And then they become disasters on your watch, like infants dying because water was cut off in the foreign aid freeze.
That’s the thing about moving fast and breaking things. Sometimes you end up breaking things you wish you hadn’t and can’t repair."
