Impoundment: Unlawful Stealing of Funds Promised to Americans
Overview
Impoundment—stealing funds promised to the American people—has always been unlawful. The Trump Administration, including OMB Director Russ Vought, fabricated the existence of an inherent Presidential power to impound, something the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, and the Supreme Court of the United States have all disavowed.
President Trump and Russ Vought have dispatched hordes of unelected and unaccountable political appointees to choke off investments made to the American people. The Trump Administration has blatantly and repeatedly violated the law to steal American taxpayer dollars by depriving communities of the promised investments they deserve. Every instance of Republicans unilaterally stealing investments from American families and businesses directly affects individuals across the nation.
Fact Sheets and Background
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) released a fact sheet detailing how the Trump Administration under the recently fired and forever-disgraced Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been dismantling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and making Americans less safe since day one.
Since the day they took office, President Trump and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought have been breaking the law, blocking Congressionally-approved public funding, and depriving American communities of crucial resources that were allocated on a bipartisan basis. A new fact sheet released today by House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) lays out some of the most flagrant violations of the law perpetrated by President Trump and Russ Vought.
Today, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released updated information detailing at least $410 billion in federal funding that President Trump and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought are holding up and denying communities across the country.
Since taking office, President Trump has trampled over our nation's laws and choked off critical investments that families, businesses, and local governments in every zip code in America are counting on.
House Appropriations Committee and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) issued the following statement on Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought’s unlawful effort to unilaterally cancel appropriated funding.
Statements
Today, after shutting down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for 76 days and refusing to fund any agency under DHS without additional funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol, House Republican leadership finally abandoned their senseless opposition to this common-sense solution and allowed a vote in the House on the unanimous Senate-passed bill, which closely mirrors legislation Ranking Member DeLauro introduced in February. The bill passed overwhelmingly.
Today, House Appropriations Committee Republicans advanced their 2027 Legislative Branch funding bill out of subcommittee. The legislation weakens government oversight and aids and abets President Trump in continuing to steal money promised to the middle class, working class, and vulnerable Americans.
Republicans today advanced the fiscal year 2027 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies funding bill out of subcommittee. The bill hurts the economy as Americans struggle to keep up with high prices, makes families and children less safe, and continues Republicans’ attacks on America’s competitiveness.
Today, the House Appropriations Committee passed on a party-line vote the Republicans’ 2027 State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs funding bill, which forfeits American influence on the world stage, slashes humanitarian funding, and threatens women’s health around the globe.
Today—as the Department of Energy (DOE) makes funding available in defiance of the fiscal year 2025 continuing resolution—Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development renewed their request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issue a legal decision on whether DOE’s allocation of these funds violated key appropriations laws by shifting hundreds of millions of dollars provided for research and development of clean energy sources to President Trump’s favored industries.
What Ranking Members are Reading
Today, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released updated information detailing at least $410 billion in federal funding that President Trump and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought are holding up and denying communities across the country.
More than 100 tribal representatives and organizations will testify before the House Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee this week, in one of the largest collective testimonies by Native communities in recent committee history.
For weeks, I have been sounding the alarm on the devastating impacts that the Trump administration’s policies are having on our communities—from our farmers and educators to our scientists and small businesses. I hope the tribal witnesses we’ll hear from will share how this administration is affecting the lives and livelihoods of Indigenous people in their communities — and across the country.
Ranking Member DeLauro regarding the Jan. 13 editorial, “Thumbs ups and thumbs downs on Trump’s picks."
Remarks
Today, House Appropriations Committee Republicans advanced their 2027 Legislative Branch funding bill out of subcommittee. The legislation weakens government oversight and aids and abets President Trump in continuing to steal money promised to the middle class, working class, and vulnerable Americans.
Today, Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Adriano Espaillat delivered the following remarks during the fiscal year 2027 Legislative Branch subcommittee markup:
Republicans today advanced the fiscal year 2027 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies funding bill out of subcommittee. The bill hurts the economy as Americans struggle to keep up with high prices, makes families and children less safe, and continues Republicans’ attacks on America’s competitiveness.
Today, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the subcommittee markup for the fiscal year 2027 Legislative Branch funding bill:
Today, Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Grace Meng (D-NY-06) delivered the following remarks during subcommittee markup for the fiscal year 2027 funding bill:
Letters to the Trump Administration
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to issue a legal decision on whether President Trump’s Department of Energy (DOE) violated key appropriations laws in shifting hundreds of millions of dollars provided for research and development of clean energy sources in the full-year continuing resolution (CR) President Trump signed into law in March and steering those funds to energy sources it favors.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair, sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought calling out the Trump administration’s unacceptable failure to submit detailed spend plans for each agency to the Appropriations Committees, as the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2025 requires by law.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, alongside Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today sent a letter to the Interim Agency Head of AmeriCorps calling for the immediate reversal of layoffs and grant terminations that have debilitated the agency’s core functions and run counter to its longstanding, bipartisan support in Congress.
The Litigation and Rapid Response Task Force led 192 House Democrats in filing an amicus brief challenging the Trump Administration’s efforts to close the Department of Education in the matter of the State of New York v. Linda McMahon. A case in which 20 states moved to sue the administration for its plans to place fifty percent of the Department’s workforce on administrative leave, effectively shuttering a congressionally authorized agency by way of executive fiat.
Toledo, Ohio — Today, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting it review whether a recent order issued by Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright that seeks to accelerate project execution might actually lead to more cost overruns, project delays and failures, and waste, fraud, and abuse at America’s national labs.