At 8:34 on Sunday morning, employees across the Department of Health and Human Services received a short email instructing them to review an attached notice and court order. That order, issued by US District Court Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island and viewed by Splinter on Sunday, was a temporary restraining order on any funding freezes like those initially instigated by an Office of Management and Budget Memo last week.
“Federal agencies cannot pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards or obligations on the basis of the OMB Memo, or on the basis of the President’s recently issued Executive Orders,” read the notice explaining the order. “Out of an abundance of caution, all federal agencies (even those not named as defendants in the case) should comply with the above-referenced terms.”
The text of the order, which was posted online by the court on Monday morning, went on to say that the funding freeze was stayed even if the government tried to do it again under a different name or method — “such as the continued implementation identified by the White House Press Secretary’s statement of January 29, 2025,” referring to a post essentially admitting attempts to circumvent judge’s orders.
Several sources inside HHS were at least somewhat reassured by the response from their leadership, which seems to be to comply with the court’s restraining order — meaning, to allow funding to continue. There is some indication that grant money had started to flow to some grantees again, though this is still unconfirmed. Another email sent to NIH employees on Monday morning and viewed by Splinter instructed relevant employees to stop looking around for contracts to cancel based on executive orders about DEI or “gender ideology” — but it also said that contracts that had already been canceled should not be reinstated.
None of this is good, obviously. The funding freeze lasting even a short period could have far-reaching effects on the scientific enterprise in this country, not to mention other effects from non-science agencies. NIH employees also have received no further guidance on the communications freeze that was theoretically going to lift on February 1, meaning it is effectively still in place; Splinter has heard that some events as far out as April have already been canceled. But the court issuing a stay on a likely illegal move — the restraining order is based on the court’s assertion that the states that sued the Trump administration “are likely to succeed on the merits” — and the agencies obeying it (for now, maybe) is at least some indication that the system hasn’t fallen apart entirely. Take the wins, however temporary or small, when they come.
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