Federal Funding Freeze Timeline

Updated March 13, 2025

This timeline explores the events leading to the funding freeze, as well as the legal actions taken since. We will regularly update it as the situation continues to develop.

• January 20: Executive Order 14154 was issued, immediately pausing the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).  

• January 20: Executive Order 13985 was issued, placing all federal employees working on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-related programs on administrative leave. 

• January 21: Executive Order 14173 was issued, laying out groundwork to specific target private sector entities conducting or funding DEI work. 

• January 27: The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo establishing a widespread freeze on federal loan and grant spending for “foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI initiatives, gender-affirming services, and the green new deal.” 

• January 28: A lawsuit was filed by a collection of nonprofits, resulting in a temporary restraining order to stop the memo from going into effect. 

• January 29: The OMB rescinded the memo, issuing a clarification that the memo did not mean a freeze on funding to individuals. However, the White House Press Secretary maintained that the Executive Orders still stood, and the freeze persisted for program funding pertaining to climate change and DEI, among others. 

• January 31: A second federal judge—through a lawsuit brought by 22 states and D.C.—issued an administrative stay on the funding freeze. It was extended into a temporary restraining order on February 3. 

• February 5: A memo was issued requiring the DOJ Civil Rights Division to “investigate, eliminate, and penalize illegal DEI and DEIA preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities in the private sector and in educational institutions that receive federal funds.” Federal agencies were instructed to “retain the minimum number of employees necessary to ensure agency compliance with applicable disability and accessibility laws.” 

• February 6: A memo was issued, stating that “[i]t is the policy of the Administration to stop funding NGOs that undermine the national interest.” 

• February 11: Executive Order 14210 was issued, outlining the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) changes to create a “critical transformation of the Federal Bureaucracy.” 

• February 14: USDA issued a statement outlining actions to eliminate positions at the department, including the termination of thousands of employees across the National Resources Conservation Service, the Farm Service Agency, and others under the USDA umbrella.  

• February 20: USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the release of $20 million (of $5.7 billion in total obligated funding) in frozen Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)-funded farmer contracts. 

• February 21: A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction, blocking the termination of equity-related grants and contracts as potentially unconstitutional.  

• February 26: Executive Order 14222 was issued, giving all federal agencies 30 days to review all existing contracts and grants —and subsequently modify or terminate them based on any misalignment with the Administration’s priorities. 

• February 26: A memo was issued, directing federal agency heads to submit phase one plans for Reductions in Force (RIF) by March 13. Phase two RIFs are due for review and approval by April 14.  

• March 5: The Merit Systems Protection Board issued a temporary stay, ordering the USDA to temporarily reinstate 5,700 employees fired since February 13, citing grounds that their terminations were illegal. The total number of USDA layoffs is unknown. 

• March 6: A second federal judge indefinitely blocked the blanket freeze on federal grants and loans, one of three lawsuits challenging the rescinded OMB memo.

• March 7: USDA sent 60-day termination notices to nationwide administrators of the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Cooperative Agreement.