Trump directed DOJ to investigate federal grantees for lobbying and partisan activity, targeting advocacy organizations

On August 28, 2025, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the Attorney General, in consultation with agency heads, to investigate whether federal grant recipients are using appropriated funds for lobbying or what the memo called "partisan political activity." The memorandum cited the Byrd Amendment (31 U.S.C. § 1352), which prohibits using appropriated federal funds for lobbying Congress or federal agencies, and directed the Attorney General to report findings and "take appropriate enforcement action" within 180 days. The memo was signed the same day as Executive Order 14343, which stripped collective bargaining rights from employees of NASA, the National Weather Service, and the Patent and Trademark Office.

The Byrd Amendment has been federal law since 1989 and already bars grantees from using grant funds directly for lobbying. What the presidential memorandum added was a directive to investigate organizations for "partisan political activity" — a term broader than what the statute covers and vague enough to encompass the lawful advocacy work that many nonprofits conduct with non-federal funds. The Alliance for Justice noted publicly that the memo does not change existing law but that the direction to take "appropriate enforcement action" signals the administration's intent to use DOJ investigative power selectively against organizations whose political positions conflict with the administration's agenda.

The Standing records this because the memorandum uses DOJ's investigative authority as a political instrument: rather than pursuing known violations of the Byrd Amendment, it directs a broad investigation framed around the political character of grantees' advocacy. Organizations that both receive federal grants and engage in policy criticism of the administration face the threat of federal investigation — a chilling effect on civil society groups that the Byrd Amendment itself was never designed to produce.