WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is barred from withholding beyond the end of the fiscal year ending Wednesday more than $800 million in spending approved by Congress. That’s according to a Government Accountability Office report that was sent to federal lawmakers and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday.
The president announced his intention Friday night to seize more than $800 million from 11 appropriations accounts, using rare and contested power to defund immigrant services and diversity initiatives.
But the GAO said federal law provides that funds proposed for rescission must be made available at some point unless Congress finalizes action on a bill along the lines of the president’s request.
“Any withholding of appropriated funds beyond their expiration date, regardless of their size, undermines both the constitutional process for enacting federal law and Congress’s constitutional power to grant money,” the GAO general counsel wrote.
Under the Impound Control Act, the administration can withhold funds for 45 days while Congress considers the issue. Lawmakers can pass a bill that includes all or part of the president’s request, but if Congress has not acted on the request within that 45-day period, the president must release the funds.
But Trump made congressional action virtually impossible by announcing the cuts with just five days left in the federal budget year and with the House out of session until the November election. The GAO, an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress, says the maneuver is known as “pocket termination.” is illegal.
Trump’s first cancellations targeted foreign aid
A year ago, Trump issued a pocket termination for the first time in nearly 50 years in block $4.9 billion in foreign aid approved by Congress. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the reversals, saying Trump’s authority over foreign affairs weighed heavily on its decision. This year, Trump is targeting domestic spending.
The use of “pocket override” is part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration to exert greater control over the U.S. government, thereby eroding the power of Congress.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he again expects the courts to have the final say on the matter. Some of the proposed cuts are things that “many of us agree with, but the process by which they did it will, I suspect, be subject to a lot of discussion and probably some litigation,” he said.
Democrats have been highly critical of the president’s efforts and are working to tighten the language in the next round of appropriations bills to prevent similar efforts in the future. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a top Democratic lawmaker on the House Budget Committee, sponsored legislation that would require the White House Office of Management and Budget to release the funds at least 90 days before they expire.
“The GAO’s decision is clear: President Trump’s pocket reversal is illegal and undermines Congress’s constitutional power over the purse,” Boyle said. “No president has the authority to ignore Congress and unilaterally rescind funding that was signed into law. »
New cuts target several federal programs
Most of the cuts sought by Trump focus on health and human services programs for refugees and unaccompanied minors accused of being in the country illegally. The administration says the funds are no longer needed because illegal border crossings have decreased significantly.
The cuts also targeted an Education Department program for migrant students, a Justice Department office focused on reducing racial tensions, a business development initiative for minority entrepreneurs and housing counseling services from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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