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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Constitutional Crisis as a Service /s
I hate this timeline. We must survive. Right?
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).
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.
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.).