Monday’s memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) pausing federal grants and loans set off a scramble in Washington and across the nation as administrators and individuals tried to figure out how the order would affect funding, from the SBA to Medicaid to the Pell grant program. (It also drew a flurry of lawsuits.) An addendum issued Tuesday has offered a bit more information, but things are still hardly crystal clear.

The original memo, from acting director Matthew J. Vaeth, ordered federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance” and conduct a “comprehensive analysis” of their grant and loan programs. Specifically, those analyses were to ensure the programs fell in line with Donald Trump’s executive orders banning federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, limiting clean energy spending, and more.

Slated to go into effect Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET, the new rules have baffled both federal organizations and private companies that work with them. In an attempt to clarify things, the OMB put........

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