Officials said the decision to halt loans and grants was necessary to ensure spending complies with recent executive orders.

The White House Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday rescinded a memo that froze federal grants and loans and created widespread confusion this week.

The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

The freeze on hundreds of billions of dollars of federal grants had been temporarily halted by a judge on Tuesday.

The new memorandum, just two sentences long, will allow agencies to continue their normal operations after uncertainty over the impact of the initial directive caused widespread chaos across government. It followed a temporary injunction by a federal judge that prevented the original Office of Management and Budget memo from taking effect.

The White House budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing federal grants, according to a copy of a new memo obtained by The Washington Post, after the administration’s move to halt spending earlier this week provoked a backlash.

The full extent of the order was not immediately clear, but the directive sent to government agencies on Monday threatened to paralyze a vast swath of federal programs.

A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's freeze of federal funding. Will Medicare, Social Security or Medicaid be affected? Here's what to know.

The Trump administration ordered a temporary pause on federal grants, loans and financial assistance. What we know so far about the order.

The unexpected memo left agencies scrambling to understand which programs were affected and how they should respond.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt vehemently defended the administration’s sweeping freeze on federal aid, arguing Tuesday in her first press briefing that it was critical to scrutinize the scope of the government’s spending.