A constitutional fight over spending complicates GOP unity on Capitol Hill as President Donald Trump holds back billions in funding appropriated by Congress.
The Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog, has repeatedly ruled that canceled or delayed funding for biomedical research, K-12 education, and more is illegal and runs afoul of the Impoundment Control Act, a federal law regulating when presidents can withhold spending.
The findings are not legally binding, but they have served as the basis for partisan complaints that the Trump administration is thumbing its nose at Congress’s power of the purse.
Republicans have been reluctant to level the same accusation, instead content to work behind the scenes to get the White House to unfreeze funds. On several occasions, GOP senators have banded together to offer a gentle but still public rebuke of Trump and White House budget office director Russell Vought for their handling of appropriated money.
The administration has begun to relent in the face of that pressure – it released $5 billion in K-12 money after a group of senators sent a letter to Vought. However, the two branches are still navigating a broader impasse over spending as the White House takes controversial steps that have incensed congressional Democrats.
The most recent example came this week when the Environmental Protection Agency terminated a $7 billion grant program for solar energy projects. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, blasted the decision as “brazenly illegal.”
Many GOP lawmakers have so far been supportive of the administration’s unilateral cost-cutting efforts.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), elected in November, said that until recently, he was unaware that the administration could not simply choose to spend less than the amount allocated by Congress.
“Can I give you a brutally honest answer? I was shocked it didn’t work that way. Remember, I’m not a politician,” Moreno, a car salesman by trade, told the Washington Examiner. “I’ve been here seven-plus months, and I didn’t realize the executive had to spend all the money they’re appropriated. I didn’t realize they didn’t have that discretion, so the fact that they have to come begging to Congress not to spend money, I was pretty surprised by. Given that framing, [I’m] obviously pretty supportive.”
Still, other Republicans have quietly pressed the administration for more congressional involvement. Before the August recess, Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, held a hearing after the administration announced a reorganization of its Agriculture Department that took lawmakers by surprise.
He was also a signatory on the letter to release education funding.
“I know both sides just want to be informed as to what’s going on. What we’d like to do is be helpful as we go forward,” Boozman told the Washington Examiner. He said the administration has been “very cooperative” in the face of requests, citing the short notice given for the reorganization hearing.
On the spending front, centrist Republicans have expressed concern about the possibility that Vought will attempt to use pocket rescissions, a form of clawback in funding at the end of a fiscal year. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, considers the practice illegal, as does the GAO.
The GAO has dozens of other investigations into potential Impoundment Control Act violations by the administration, though Republicans have sometimes ignored the watchdog. Earlier this year, Senate Republicans bypassed legal guidance from GAO to repeal California’s EV mandate.
Only once has the White House officially requested that Congress roll back funding it previously appropriated. Known as a recession bill, Congress passed a measure along mostly party lines last month to cancel more than $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting money.
Going forward, the GOP is expected to be less enthusiastic about rescissions, though the White House has signaled it could send more. The practice could also jeopardize negotiations with Democrats to fund the government for the next fiscal year by an Oct. 1 deadline.
Billions in withheld funding were at the center of a possible deal to expedite dozens of Trump’s nominees that fell apart last week, before lawmakers left town for August.
GOP FIGHTS GAO EFFORTS TO THROTTLE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), who chairs a tax subcommittee within the House Ways and Means Committee, seemed to offer deference to Trump. He said Congress has an “oversight responsibility” but that GOP senators should withhold public criticism and “quit criticizing everything that goes on.”
“If it’s working the way it’s supposed to, then you’re going to get your opportunity to do whatever it is that you think you have to do,” Kelly told the Washington Examiner. “I would just rather work where we have a more cohesive body, where we work on fixing things internally, and not try to have an opportunity on the front steps of the Capitol.”