The director of the Office of Management and Budget is infuriating Republican lawmakers by "going rogue" on what appropriations were approved by the House and Senate.

The director of the Office of Management and Budget is infuriating Republican lawmakers by “going rogue” on what appropriations were approved by the House and Senate.

MS NOW’s Hayes Brown wrote on Monday that Director Russell Vought has made a unilateral decision to control whether funds are actually sent out for projects that Congress approved.

The constitutional core is Article I’s Appropriations Clause: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” So, the president can’t legally spend Treasury money unless Congress has authorized it through law. Appropriations are technically laws approved by Congress. The president’s Article II powers mandate that he “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”

But the executive branch is refusing to disburse the funds approved by law. In fact, Brown explained that “Vought has used every lever he can reach to stanch the flow of federal dollars.”

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    • grue@lemmy.world
      14·
      22 days ago

      Yes, we’ll survive. Except for all those who don’t (millions so far, between COVID, ending of USAID, ICE, attacks on Venezuela and Iran, etc.).

    • credo@lemmy.world
      4·
      22 days ago

      There is no crisis. It’s a gap in our framework.

      There isn’t a law that says the Executive must spend the money Congress approved. The intent is, if the Executive is doing a poor job, the People will vote him/her out.

      The People are the problem (because of a decades long assault on education and a concerted brainwashing campaign by the oligarchy).

      • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        22 days ago

        It’s also not necessarily a bad thing to have an executive not spend money Congress approved. While many likely disagree with how that discretion is being used, it’s not bad that it exists.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
          3·
          22 days ago

          You’re assuming the executive branch in its infinite wisdom knows better what we all want than Congress? I completely disagree. While I disagree with a lot of what Congress does, the consensus approach is less likely to lead to abuse

          • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            22 days ago

            I’m assuming that it’s a check against Congress just appropriating absurdly large sums for pet projects or for securing donations. The job of the executive is not to blindly follow Congress, but it’s also not to fight everything Congress wants.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
              1·
              22 days ago

              The responsibilities of each branch, the checks and balances, are well defined on both sides. Going off script is almost by definition an abuse of power

              • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
                11·
                22 days ago

                It’s not off script. Not spending a billion dollars on Capitol landscaping even if Congress appropriated that much wouldn’t be faithfully executing the laws.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        1·
        22 days ago

        The idiots that are us only have limited options years apart. For day to day issues, it is mainly Congress who can serve as a check to executive overreach. They are the failure. Most of the overreach is the executive branch stealing congressional authority and they don’t seem to care

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
    25·
    22 days ago

    Furious he is going rogue, from the going rogue party, with the rogue president having a rogue administration?!?!
    Are they out of acid so they had a lucid moment?
    Nah probably just a bad trip.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    151·
    22 days ago

    What did these assholes think was going to happen?

    This is the same smug little jerkoff that is the architect of Project 2025.