(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump’s administration has rescinded its sweeping directive that sought to pause potentially trillions in loans, grants and financial assistance, according to a memo obtained by ABC News.
“OMB memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded,” the short memo from Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, reads. “If you have questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel.”
The policy reversal follows a tumultuous 48 hours for the White House, as states and local governments raised concerns that funding for health care, law enforcement, disaster aid and infrastructure spending could be paused or delayed during the expansive rollout of the policy.
Amid the confusion, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a stay of the policy through Monday as lawyers for the Department of Justice struggled to confirm the extent of the directive.
“Without this funding, Plaintiff States will be unable to provide certain essential benefits for residents, pay public employees, satisfy obligations, and carry on the important business of government,” 22 state attorneys general had said in the lawsuit challenging the policy Tuesday.
On Monday, the Office of Management and Budget ordered federal agencies to freeze any federal funding to activities that might be implicated by Trump’s executive orders, causing states, local governments and nonprofits to scramble to determine if their funding would be cut off. Less than 24 hours after the policy was revealed, the White House attempted to clarify the policy in a memo, saying programs that provide direct benefits to Americans — such as Social Security, Medicare and SNAP benefits — would be excluded from the freeze.
During the hearing Tuesday, the lawyer for the Department of Justice struggled to clarify exactly what would be affected.
“It seems like the federal government currently doesn’t actually know the full scope of the programs that are going to be subject to the pause. Is that correct?” U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan asked.
“I can only speak for myself, which is just based on the limited time frame here, that I do not have a comprehensive list,” DOJ lawyer Daniel Schwei said, adding, “it just depends” on the type of program and funding source.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Accountability for the members of the Secret Service who were at fault for the July 13 assassination attempt against President-elect Donald Trump is “occurring,” acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Rowe told a House task force investigating the incident on Thursday.
“All disciplinary measures are imposed to promote the efficiency of the Secret Service and to encourage behaviors and principles that ensure the success of the agency’s mission,” he testified.
“Employees receiving proposals of discipline will be provided due process under agency policy as well as any applicable laws and regulations. But, let me be clear, there will be accountability, and that accountability is occurring. Consistent with applicable laws and regulations, I cannot comment further on specific disciplinary actions underway or being considered.”
At the same time, he said, the agency should not be defined by one failure.
Suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire during the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, shooting Trump in the ear, killing one spectator and wounding two others.
A Secret Service Mission Assurance report was released earlier in the year, along with a Department of Homeland Security independent review and a Senate report.
Rowe testified that since becoming director he has focused on preventing another July 13 shooting from happening again.
In his memo, he said the Secret Service increased its staffing levels on the president-elect’s detail, expanding the use of drones at venues, expanding counter-drone technology at venues, addressing the faulty radio issue by working with the Defense Department, using other federal law enforcement agencies to help with protective visits and expanding the ballistic countermeasures at Secret Service protected events.
At the president-elect’s residences, the Secret Service has worked with state and local partners to bolster security and use cutting-edge technology to do so.
“My goal is to improve our mission effectiveness and rebuild public trust,” Rowe said. “One of the key systemic changes was the directive to mandate a unified command in a singular location for all protective sites, something that was not done on July 13th in Butler. This co-location enhances our communications and intelligence-sharing mechanisms with state, local and federal partners to better anticipate threats and respond to them more swiftly.”
Rowe testified that he has also prioritized the mental health of agents, adding a chief wellness officer just this week.
“While I cannot undo the harm that has been done, I am committed to doing everything in my power to ensure that the Secret Service never has a failure like this again.”
(WASHINGTON) — Whether it is a hurricane, major tornado, wildfire or anything in between, disasters “don’t discriminate” in where they will be and whom they might affect, according to the outgoing top emergency manager.
“We know that these types of severe weather events, they don’t have borders, they don’t discriminate and we [at] FEMA … have the ability to make sure that anyone impacted doesn’t have the barriers to access our programs,” outgoing Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell told ABC News.
Criswell, a member of the Air National Guard for 21 years, has also been the top emergency manager in Aurora, Colorado, and in New York City.
“All disasters start and end at the local level, and our job as federal emergency managers is to enable their ability to be successful, and I’ve been in their role,” she said.
The outgoing administrator said she “never lost sight” of putting herself in the local emergency managers’ shoes and made policy changes based on that thinking.
Criswell noted she received criticism for putting “equity” into her strategic plan to run the agency but defended it, saying the agency needed a “mindset shift” to reach everyone who may be affected by a disaster.
“Having been a customer and understanding the barriers that people experience, whether that’s an individual or a small community, and being able to remove those barriers so everybody has the ability to get what they’re eligible for, was my focus with equity, and I know that there’s naysayers out there that want to say that equity is about picking and choosing winners and losers or however they want to phrase it, but that’s not what this was about,” she said. “This was about removing barriers, helping people through their toughest day in the way that the federal government was designed to do.”
Criswell said the agency is “nonpartisan” and that it should stay that way.
“The only way that we are going to be successful in helping communities recover, helping them rebuild in a way that makes them more resilient to future events, is by maintaining that level of nonpartisanship because if we don’t have it, then we’re going to also lose trust in the communities that we’re going in there to help,” she explained. “Without that trust, we’re not going to be able to help them with their immediate needs, and we’re not going to be not going to be able to help them with their long-term rebuilding.”
She said every disaster she responded to during her time as administrator was “different” and “unique,” including wildfires in Los Angeles, hurricane devastation in western North Carolina and crippling tornadoes in Arkansas.
“I think maybe what’s challenging is that every one I go to, it never got any easier,” she said. “It never got any easier to see people lose so much and want to be able to do whatever we could to help them on this road to recovery, knowing that we can only jump-start that process.”
During her time as administrator, she said she tried to meet people where they were and “could not make decisions about how to implement the response in the recovery from an office in Washington, D.C.”
Criswell said she got to know governors from across the country, both Republicans and Democrats, and saw the care they felt for their states during tragedies big and small.
“I reach out to every governor when something has happened, sometimes even small things that are happening,” she said. “When it comes to helping their communities, their people that have been impacted by natural disasters, I get to see the human side of every one of our state leaders, and they all care so deeply about the people that they were elected to serve.”
Part of the job as FEMA administrator is traveling to disaster zones, often with the president.
Just after Criswell was confirmed as administrator, a condominium complex in Surfside, Florida, collapsed. She and President Joe Biden visited the families who were affected. Criswell said loved ones and survivors were gathered in a room waiting to hear the status of their homes and family members when the president walked in.
“President Biden and the first lady came in, and he walked around and talked to every one of them, and what I saw that day — and then I saw every single disaster following that — was just the human side of how he approached these horrible events, and he didn’t walk around and just shake a hand and move on,” she said. “He sat and had meaningful conversations. He shared his own stories of personal tragedy.”
All told, Criswell said, he spent three hours meeting with and talking to victims.
“I have traveled with President Biden to more disasters than I ever expected to. And I told him — Mr. President, I never thought I’d have to see this much,” she said, adding that he’d always give a chuckle.
Criswell said FEMA will continue to have challenges in battling misinformation.
“We are in a new information environment, and we have to find ways to be more proactive, to build relationships with trusted leaders and communities that they can help be force multipliers [in] us getting the right message out,” she said, adding that it is something the agency has always had to deal with.
“The level … that we’re seeing divisiveness created through some of the information that’s going out there is just going to be something we have to face going forward, and we’re going to have to work on how do we get ahead of that and how do we find trusted voices in communities to help us get the real information out there,” she said.
Criswell said that in the end, it is all about helping people and getting the right information out to the right people.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security is allowing certain law enforcement components from the Department of Justice to carry out the “functions” of an immigration officer, according to a new memo sent by the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffeman.
Huffeman’s memo, obtained by ABC News, said the order grants the agencies the “same authority already granted to the FBI.” It said that agents can enforce immigration law.
The agencies listed in the memo are the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the US Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The DEA and ATF have had little experience historically in carrying out immigration enforcement. Historically, the US Marshals only get involved when there has been a migrant who has become a fugitive.
Earlier this week, it was announced federal immigration authorities will be permitted to target schools and churches after President Donald Trump revoked a directive barring arrests in “sensitive” areas.
DHS announced Tuesday it would roll back the policy to “thwart law enforcement in or near so-called sensitive areas.”
Schools and houses of worship were once deemed off-limits, as were hospitals, funerals, weddings and public demonstrations, but no longer after the announcement.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” Huffeman said Tuesday.