Senate Spending Deal Would Freeze the White House Rule Putting Political Appointees in Charge of Federal Grants

Senate appropriators announced a bipartisan stopgap on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026 funding the government through Dec. 11 and blocking, for that period, the Office of Management and Budget rule requiring federal grants to be approved by senior political appointees. Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, cited the rule's "potential to politicize grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research."

The rule is how the administration proposed to condition hundreds of billions of dollars in awards on alignment with its policy priorities. Freezing it by rider would put Congress, not a court, in charge — and the freeze would lapse with the stopgap.

The measure is draft text and has not passed. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he was inclined to oppose it over taking "away President Trump's authority to review government grants."