Trump’s OMB Order Is Vague, Confusing and Illegal: Noah Feldman (1)

A week into his presidency, Donald Trump is officially on a tear.

The president’s Office of Management and Budget has caused panic and confusion with a memo that orders government agencies to freeze disbursement of all federal grants and loans “to the extent possible” under the law.

Agencies must comply with the “temporary pause” beginning at 5 p.m. EST today.

The memo is clearly intended to raise the possibility of a genuine across-the-board spending freeze, with exceptions perhaps for Social Security, welfare benefits, Medicare and Medicaid, and other individual entitlements. However, the White House later rushed to clarify that ...