The White House’s freeze on federal grants and loans that led to chaos across federal agencies after it was announced late Monday will not affect military families and veterans receiving direct public assistance such as food stamps and Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, vouchers, Trump administration officials pledged Tuesday.

But Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs programs that support medical research, caregivers, state-run veterans nursing homes, veterans cemeteries and more will be affected by the freeze until at least Feb. 7.

Additional instructions were due to be sent to agencies at 5 p.m. Tuesday that would provide guidance greatly limiting the freeze, though any delay still is likely to face legal challenges as the administration prevents spending already approved by Congress and signed into law.

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Minutes before the freeze was set to go into effect, a federal judge temporarily blocked the move, pausing the effort until Monday.

The reprieve appears to have given hundreds of federal programs and grant recipients a break from what could be a suspension of trillions of dollars worth of funding.

White House Office of Management and Budget released a memo late Monday announcing it would suspend federal grants, loans and other financial assistance on Tuesday so agencies could review their programs to ensure that they align with the policies spelled out in a series of executive orders issued in the past week by President Donald Trump.

The freeze order caused widespread confusion across the federal government, in Congress and among groups around the country that depend on federal aid. On Tuesday, there were reports that agencies and organizations were locked out of an online system responsible for depositing the money, which appeared to affect programs such as Medicaid, Head Start early childhood education programs, and community health centers, according to CBS News.

Trump’s executive orders addressed a range of topics, such as the deportation of illegal migrants, fossil fuel production increases, diversity programs including eliminating protections for transgender individuals, and foreign aid.

The OMB said the order on federal aid specifically does not affect “assistance provided directly to individuals,” including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, and Medicare and Social Security benefits.

“Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, food stamps, welfare benefits, assistance that is going directly to individuals will not be impacted by this pause, and I want to make that very clear to any Americans who are watching at home,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt during her press conference debut in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

An OMB note sent to Congress on Tuesday said the freeze also will not affect Medicaid, “funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell Grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs,” according to the document, obtained by Military.com.

Tuesday afternoon, however, dozens of states were reporting that their Medicaid portals and payment systems had been shut off, contradicting the OMB note to Congress.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., wrote on the social media platform X that Connecticut’s portal was down, while Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon tweeted that his staff confirmed that the issue was nationwide.

Medicaid is operated by the states but receives federal funding to provide medical care for low-income individuals and families.

The note said the freeze “is expressly limited to programs, projects and activities implicated by the president’s executive orders, such as ending [diversity programs], the ‘Green New Deal’ and funding nongovernmental organizations that undermine the national interest,” as defined by the Trump administration.

“Any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process,” the note stated.

In a 52-page document, OMB listed the programs in federal agencies that must be reviewed by Feb. 7 to ensure that they comply with Trump’s policies. The agencies were ordered to complete a spreadsheet that asks for their disbursement information, as well as whether the programs contain content that defies the executive orders.

Noted for review within the Defense Department listings are programs that support the Fisher House, a nonprofit that provides housing near military medical centers for families of hospitalized patients; base environmental conservation programs; grants for student achievement in Defense Department schools; medical research; caregiver support programs; and dozens of others.

VA programs including veterans cemetery grants; education assistance for veterans and family members; adaptive sports grants; suicide prevention programs; a program that provides health benefits for veteran family members; and state-run veterans nursing homes are among the nearly 50 VA programs that must be reviewed.

“This is a temporary pause in a freeze to ensure that all of the money going out from Washington, D.C., is in line with the president’s agenda,” Leavitt said.

Eileen Huck, deputy director of government relations for the National Military Family Association, said the confusion Tuesday regarding the announcement and uncertainty over whether military personnel would continue to receive benefits has placed undue stress on families.

More than 22,000 service members received SNAP benefits in 2019, according to the Government Accountability Office, and roughly 1.2 million veterans rely on food stamps to cover their grocery expenses, while thousands of military children are enrolled in Head Start programs, are eligible for WIC or receive Medicare benefits under programs that supplement Tricare for those with special needs.

“I think, overall, uncertainty is not good for anyone, and especially not good for military families, who already face so much uncertainty and so many challenges,” Huck said during an interview with Military.com. “So just even having a question about whether a program or a resource that you rely on is going to suddenly become unavailable just adds stress and chaos.”

The freeze immediately will affect thousands of programs that help veterans, including suicide prevention initiatives and legal assistance for former service members such as the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center, which would lose $500,000 from its annual budget if its federal grant is cut.

“The loss will start almost almost immediately — we now anticipate that we will not receive our quarterly reimbursement of $75,000 for services to veterans at risk of homelessness,” the organization said in a statement to the office of Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

During a hearing Thursday, Blumenthal said the move was illegal.

“This freeze on federal aid will hurt veterans by pausing funding for critical programs that millions of veterans and their families rely on. We’re talking about homeless veterans, funding for veterans’ nursing homes across the country, suicide prevention programs. These funds must be freed immediately, or else veterans will be betrayed,” Blumenthal said.

On Tuesday, the National Council of Nonprofits, a group that represents more than 30,000 nonprofit organizations, joined the American Public Health Association, Main Street Alliance, and the LGBTQ+ advocacy group SAGE to file a lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget over the freeze.

The suit charges that the freeze is unconstitutional and also seeks a temporary restraining order to stop its execution while it is under legal review.

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