Maryland leaders on Wednesday found little comfort in President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind an order to freeze all kinds of federal grants — a move that sparked panic in the state and across the country on Tuesday before a federal judge suspended it.

Gov. Wes Moore, members of Congress and others continued to highlight the potential impacts of the original directive from Trump’s budget office, which White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted the administration would continue to pursue even as it reversed course on the formal order.

“We are continuing to watch unrestrained chaos and contradictory guidance from this White House, adding to the confusion and fear that Marylanders are feeling right now,” Moore said in a statement. “A sustained, ideological federal funding freeze would threaten our economy, our jobs, our communities, and our people — from first responders to small businesses to seniors to middle-class families.”

Underscoring the whiplash in less than 48 hours, four of the state’s seven Democratic U.S. House members discussed the issue over lunch with Moore in Annapolis only to find out during a virtual House Democratic Caucus meeting afterward that the order was rescinded and the White House was simultaneously vowing to move “rigorously” to implement a funding freeze.

“The flip flopping of direction, the lack of any type of clarity from this White House, is deeply concerning,” U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth, an Anne Arundel County Democrat, said moments later when speaking to reporters in the State House. “It makes it very difficult for us to do our jobs.”

She and others have said their offices were inundated with calls from organizations that rely on federal funds as well as individuals, though the Trump administration clarified in one update that the order would not have applied to direct assistance programs like Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

As lawmakers continue to make sense of which of the thousands of programs that could have been impacted, Elfreth said it was challenging when even members of Congress are “not privy to any kind of secret clarifying memo to the clarifying memo that was just rescinded.”

“We have as much information as the general public has, which is not helpful when we are on the front lines — when we have our mayors and our county executives, the presidents of our community colleges and hospitals, Boys and Girls Clubs, domestic violence shelters — calling us for direction, all of whom receive significant federal funds to perform their function, to perform their duties as a public service.”

U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer, of St. Mary’s County, and Johnny Olszewski Jr., of Baltimore County, stressed the confusion and fear they heard from constituents.

U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney, of Montgomery County, said she was similarly hearing from groups throughout her district in Western Maryland, including the Frederick Police Department that she was visiting on Tuesday and where officers questioned their own federally backed law enforcement grants.

“This is not over. This is going to be a long couple of years,” McClain Delaney said.

It was not immediately clear which types of federal grants the Trump administration was still looking to pause. Leavitt said Tuesday the goal of the order from the Office of Management and Budget was to comply with other executive orders Trump has signed in his first days after returning to office — including those that eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government, gender-affirming care supported by federal funding and environmental programs.

“This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” Leavitt posted on social media. “It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”

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