President Donald Trump is making good on his campaign promise of conducting a massive overhaul of federal agencies, having already paused $3 trillion in federal funding and fired dozens of bureaucrats or forced them to quit.
Democrats are already pushing back against the whirlwind changes. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is turning to the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which prevents the executive branch from flouting Congressional-approved spending measures.
“Congress approved these investments and they are not optional; they are the law,” Schumer said in a statement.
The White House pushed back on the accusation of impoundment, citing that the funds were only paused pending review. Still, in a 2023 video, Trump called the 1974 law “unconstitutional.”
“For 200 years under our system of government, it was undisputed that the President had the constitutional power to stop unnecessary spending through what is known as impoundment,” Trump said in the video. “When I return to the White House, I will do everything I can to challenge the Impoundment Control Act in court and if necessary, get Congress to overturn it. We will overturn it. I will then use the President’s long recognized impoundment power to squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy, for massive savings.”
Here is a breakdown of at least eight major changes Trump has made to federal agencies.
Pause on all federal grants and loans
The White House’s budget office ordered a temporary pause on the distribution of approximately $3 trillion in federal grants and loans.
Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, addressed in his letter that all federal agencies must conduct a review of all their “financial assistance programs and supporting activities” to ensure that they are aligned with Trump’s priorities and policies.
“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” Vaeth said in the letter. He also cited a slew of Trump’s recently signed executive orders backing up the temporary funding pause.
“This temporary pause will provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities,” the letter stated.
Agencies have until Feb. 10 to “submit to OMB detailed information on any programs, projects or activities subject to this pause.”
The pause excludes programs that provide direct benefits to people, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, Pell Grants, and student loans.
Congress has a mixed reaction to the Trump administration’s temporary pause, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) called it a “normal practice” during a change in power.
“I think that’s a normal practice at the beginning of administration until we have an opportunity to know how the money is being spent,” Thune said. “And I think Biden did that and he obviously pulled money back on the border wall and other things that he didn’t want that had been funded previously.”
Meanwhile, Democrats like Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) have called it a “constitutional crisis.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) shared that while this was a power appropriated to the president, he said he hopes it is “short lived”:
“I hope it’s short lived because there’s real people that depend on these grants, and real people with real jobs, with missions, and I’ve heard from people in my district this morning asking me about it.”
A lawsuit on behalf of several nonprofits has been filed against the Trump administration in an effort to halt the funding pause.
“Given the few hours that remain before federal grantees are thrown into disarray, Plaintiffs file this Complaint and seek a temporary restraining order to maintain the status quo until the Court has an opportunity to more fully consider the illegality of the Trump administration’s] actions,” the groups wrote in a 20-page lawsuit.
USAID workers put on leave and all foreign aid paused
The Trump administration put at least 56 U.S. Agency for International Development officers on leave with full pay and benefits for allegations of violations of Trump’s executive orders.
An internal memo sent from USAID acting Administrator Jason Gray revealed that he found “several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the President’s Executive Orders and the mandate from the American people.”
“As a result, we have placed a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice while we complete our analysis of these actions,” Gray wrote.
However, the notice did not state which executive order USAID employers were violating.
This follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio pausing the majority of foreign aid through the State Department with exceptions for emergency food programs and military aid to Egypt and Israel, falling in line with Trump’s agenda.
The temporary halt in funding shuts down the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the global health program started by George W. Bush, which is credited with saving 25 million lives worldwide.
“This is another domino in the devastating impact of the harmful freeze to programs, leaving lives hanging in the balance,” Jirair Ratevosian, who served as chief of staff for PEPFAR during the Biden administration, told the New York Times.
Trump shakes up the Justice Department
Trump fired several Justice Department lawyers on Monday who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations that turned into now-dismissed charges regarding Trump’s handling of classified documents and his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
“Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” a Justice Department official wrote to NBC News. “In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda. This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government.”
Among those terminated were Molly Gaston, J.P. Cooney, Anne McNamara, and Mary Dohrmann.
In addition, Corey Amundson, the Justice Department’s senior career official in charge of overseeing public corruption, resigned on Monday following the Trump administration seeking to reassign him to oversee immigration issues, a move by the Trump administration to force him out.
“I am honored and blessed to have served our country and this department for the last 23 years,” Amundson wrote in his letter to acting Attorney General James McHenry. “I spent my entire professional life committed to the apolitical enforcement of the federal criminal law and to ensuring that those around me understood and embraced that central tenet of our work,” Amundson said.
He is one of an estimated 20 Justice Department officials who were reassigned to the new Sanctuary City Working Group inside the associate attorney general’s office.
17 inspectors general fired
On Friday, Trump fired 17 inspectors general, claiming aboard Air Force One that this was “a very standard thing to do.”
“Some people thought that some were unfair or some were not doing the job,” Trump said.
But Trump’s firing does not fall in line with precedent or the Inspector General Act, which states that the head of the inspector general shall be appointed “without regard to political affiliation and solely on the basis of integrity and demonstrated ability in accounting, auditing, financial analysis, law, management, and etc.”
One of the fired inspectors general, Mark Greenblatt, told the New York Times that Trump’s actions undermine the purpose of the inspector general to remain nonpartisan.
“This raises an existential threat with respect to the primary independent oversight function in the federal government,” Greenblatt said in an interview. “We have preserved the independence of inspectors general by making them not swing with every change in political party.”
Both Democrats and Republicans have taken issue with Trump’s firings of inspectors general, with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL ) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA ) accusing Trump of violating the law for not giving Congress a 30 day notice.
“This is a matter of public and congressional accountability and ensuring the public’s confidence in the Inspector General community, a sentiment shared more broadly by other Members of Congress,” the senators wrote to Trump. “IGs are critical to rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct within the Executive Branch bureaucracy, which you have publicly made clear you are also intent on doing.”
Trump fires leadership from National Labor Relations Board
Trump fired former President Joe Biden’s National Labor Relations Board chairwoman, Gwynne Wilcox, and the labor board’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo.
It is illegal for a president to remove a board member unless there is evidence of negligence of duty or malfeasance. Wilcox, whose term expires in 2028, said she would fight back against Trump’s firing.
“I believe that I should still be able to be a board member and contribute to this country,” Wilcox said in a statement to Axios. “I will be pursuing all legal avenues to challenge my removal, which violates long-standing Supreme Court precedent.”
The Supreme Court precedent, known as Good Cause Tenure Protection, has been affirmed for almost 100 years. In recent years, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Congress may also protect leaders of agencies such as the NLRB from being fired without just cause.
As for Abruzzo, Biden was the first to break precedent by firing her predecessor, Trump appointee Peter Robb.
Trump’s firing of pro-labor Abruzzo and Wilcox is rumored to entice Amazon and SpaceX to challenge the constitutionality of the NLRB at the Supreme Court.
Changes in leadership within Secret Service
At least three higher-ups in the Secret Service have announced they are leaving their roles and two outsiders are joining leadership ranks.
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It is uncommon for the Secret Service to see such a shift in leadership in presidential administrations, but the shift comes after two attempts on Trump’s life.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a report in October on the Secret Service that recommended leadership at the agency be replaced with outside individuals to change the culture of the agency, including the “present sense of complacency within the Service.”
