In an abrupt move this afternoon, the white House Office of Management and Budget rolled back its freeze on all federal grants and loans.

According to a copy of the memo first obtained by the Washington Post, the order rescinds the Trump administration's temporary pause on all federal spending, telling federal agencies to contact their general counsel if they have questions about implementing the president's executive orders.

The move comes roughly 24 hours after the initial action sparked widespread backlash and confusion by local, state and federal officials, who were unclear exactly which programs and initiatives were affected by the order.

A judge Tuesday evening also intervened, issuing a temporary stay on the attempted freeze in response to a lawsuit filed by nonprofit organizations.

For all the latest, I'm joined by our Washington, D.C. correspondent Ben Hulac.

Ben, so glad to talk to you.

So yesterday, the White House press secretary essentially said it was the media that was causing all of this confusion about the call to freeze aid.

But today the budget office suspended it.

What do we make of this?

Well, it was not reporters causing the confusion.

The white House issue.

The white House Budget Office issued a memo that was a blanket freeze that would have affected trillions of dollars that had already been obligated.

The Congress had already passed Republicans.

Democrats already sent out the door, and people were scrambling.

Companies, nonprofits, anyone who received federal grant money was worried about how this could affect them.

So this problem came straight from the Trump administration.

Yeah.

I mean, you spoke with a number of different people yesterday, from Congress members to folks who run organizations here in the state.

What were they saying?

I mean, who and what was at risk?

And interestingly, it was sort of, it was chaos and they didn't know what was at risk.

That really was the story here.

People were trying to determine what exactly had happened, if they would be affected.

I spoke to someone who said they couldn't access a grant portal and online portal needed to, complete their grant work, and they also were still unsure at that point.

This was yesterday, 24 hours ago, of whether or not they be paid for services they completed.

So this was, just utter chaos.

I mean, there were preventions put in place.

No, decades ago.

There's a whole reason why Congress has the power of the purse strings.

Did this essentially circumvent that?

Was it unconstitutional?

As our attorney general, Matt Platkin, and other attorneys general, claimed yesterday?

Right.

So the matter will be there's a court case that will be heard here in Washington next Monday.

Unless that is dismissed in the meantime, as a constitutionality, I will defer to constitutional scholars.

But this did run directly against the Constitution.

The Congress has the power of the purse people on this in this building, here like to say Republicans and Democrats and Richard Nixon trying to get around this in the 1970s.

And Congress stepped in and said, no, Mr. President, you need to spend the money as we have passed it.

And for the reasons and purposes, we've passed it.

So this was really settled law.

And, we can have the Trump administration, any challenge that the Trump administration, though, Ben, correct me, said essentially this is to ensure that the spending is in line with the president's agenda and that presidents traditionally do this.

They take stock of where the money is going and does it meet the priorities that the current president has laid out, but is it that or are we seeing really at practice, how the president has promised to reshape the government?

The latest example, the offer for buyouts for federal workers?

This was distinctly different.

You're right in pointing out that administrations, as they change hands, will come in and reassess where the money is going.

This was a blanket stop across thousands of acts of federal money.

I would also point out on those buyouts as they've been described, those are not funded.

So there is no money for that.

And this also will be amplified in all of these budget issues, will come to a head in about two months when, Congress faces another funding deadline.

So this, this, budget is really an issue that's coming down the pike at us.

And, what?

Mr. Trump has Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress.

If he wanted to make these cuts, he can go to the Congress and say, please cut this, please increase funding here.

Instead, he did an end around run, Monday night that left everyone scrambling.

All right, Ben, Hugh Lock for us in Washington.

You can check out Ben's full reporting on this and so much more.

That has been happening on the Hill on our website, NJSpotlightNews.org.

Ben, good to talk to you.

Likewise, thanks.