Washington, D.C. — The Trump administration has been unlawfully impounding funds, meaning it is not allowing agencies to use the funds they were promised by Congress. Failing to carry out spending laws goes against the president’s constitutional duties. A new Center for American Progress column breaks down four paths the Trump administration, which Elon Musk is a part of, have to break spending laws:
- Imposing holds at the agency/bureau level. The Constitution provides that Congress appropriates funding, which allows federal agencies and bureaus to incur budgetary obligations on behalf of the U.S. government. Trump’s actions to pause most of the work at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to pause grants made by the National Institutes of Health, and to pause activities at other agencies, are illegal as they prevent the use of these funds.
- Imposing holds at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). When a law instructs an agency to spend money, before the agency spends that money, a technical step is required: The OMB must apportion the funding. This step typically is intended to ensure funds are obligated but can be used illegally to prevent funds from being obligated at all if the OMB puts holds on its apportionments. The Trump administration has taken the first step to abusing this power, as it did in 2019.
- Refusing to process payments in the Treasury payment system. After the OMB apportions funds and the agencies obligate them, payment orders are sent to the Treasury to be processed. Recently, Elon Musk’s DOGE team got access to the Treasury payment system. Musk’s team having access should be viewed in the same light as the funding holds at the OMB—another way for the Trump administration to break spending law and illegally impound funds.
- Clawing back funds after disbursement. The Trump administration appears to have withdrawn funds directly from a city’s bank account—funds the city was entitled to.
“The Trump administration’s actions to illegally withhold promised funds to agencies and departments causes real harm,” said Bobby Kogan, senior director of Federal Budget Policy at CAP and co-author of the column. “Pausing funding for lifesaving aid, research on new cancer treatments, and wildfire containment does nothing to strengthen the country; it weakens it. People across the nation and globe will feel the negative repercussions of the Trump administration and DOGE’s illegal impoundments.”
Read the column: “Trump and DOGE’s 4 Paths To Breaking Spending Law” by Bobby Kogan and Sophie Cohen
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