The Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum instructing all executive agencies to freeze any loans or grants on Monday, Jan. 27.
The memo instructed federal agencies to freeze all federal loans or grants, except those issued directly to individuals. According to a Texas State spokesperson, the memo does not currently impact student financial aid.
“The U.S. Department of Education is currently reviewing the full impact of the memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget on Jan. 27, 2025, to temporarily pause federal financial assistance programs,” An update on the Federal Student Aid website stated. “Per the memo, the pause does not impact ‘assistance received directly by individuals.’ This includes Title IV, HEA funds, which are provided to individual students.”
According to a September 2024 release by Texas State, 46.6% of students receive a Pell Grant.
In an email to Texas State faculty on Jan. 29, Shreek Mandayam, Texas State’s vice president for research, said the memo was rescinded. According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt the memo was rescinded, but the funding freeze remains in place.
“This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction” Leavitt wrote in post on X on Jan. 29. “The President’s [Executive Orders] on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”
U.S. District Court Judge Loren L. AliKhan, for the District of Columbia, issued a stay on the memo, temporarily pausing it until Monday, Feb. 3. The ruling only applied to existing grant and loan programs.
Another federal judge, John J. McConnell Jr. from the District of Rhode Island, issued a temporary restraining order against the funding pause on Jan. 31. The freeze came after the attorneys general of 22 states and Washington D.C. sued to prevent the freeze from going into place.
“The Court must act in these early stages of the litigation under the “worst case scenario” because the breadth and ambiguity of the Executive’s action makes it impossible to do otherwise,” McConnell wrote.
McConnell’s order said that the original memo gave less than 24 hours before it would have gone into place, preventing bodies that receive federal funds from being able to plan on how to function without those funds.
While the order is paused, it could go into place depending on future court rulings.
If the funding pause resumes, it remains unclear how, if at all, it will impact research funding or other federally funded programs at Texas State.
“TXST is reviewing the executive memorandum to determine any potential impacts on institutional operations, which includes research funding,” A university spokesperson wrote.
In 2023 Texas State spent $141 million on research, the highest amount on record for the university. Federal research grants accounted for 16.3% of the university’s research spending.
The university’s increase in research spending comes amid President Kelly Damphousse’s Run to R1, a push to make Texas State a top tier research university. Losing federal research funding could interrupt that process, as R1 status requires spending a certain amount on research each year, as well as a minimum number of doctorates issued each year.
