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 Elon Musk and OMB Director Russ Vought, have 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, Elon Musk, 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
Today, the House Appropriations Committee released text for the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment fiscal year 2026 funding package.
After weeks of infighting, Republicans have failed to move any of the nine remaining fiscal year 2026 spending bills since the government reopened more than a month ago. A new fact sheet released today by the House Appropriations Committee highlights how Republican proposals fail to address Americans’ concerns about affordability, community safety, and President Trump’s corruption.
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.
Statements
Today, House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro issued the following statement after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reinstated billions of dollars in Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants that he abruptly cancelled last night
Today, House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Steny Hoyer, and National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee Ranking Member Lois Frankel issued statements on the House passage of the appropriations package covering their jurisdictions.
Today, House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro issued the following statement after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. canceled billions of dollars in Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) grants.
Today, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro released a statement on the retirement of Congressman Steny Hoyer, Ranking Member of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee:
Today, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee Ranking Member Grace Meng, House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Ranking Member Marcy Kaptur, and House Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee Ranking Member Chellie Pingree applauded House passage of the Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, and Interior-Environment funding package.
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
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the House Rules Committee in support of the fiscal year 2026 spending package covering the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment funding bills:
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks on the House Floor in opposition to the Republican plan to allow health care costs to skyrocket for over 20 million Americans:
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the House Rules Committee in opposition to the Republican plan to allow health care costs to skyrocket for over 20 million Americans:
WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks on the House Floor in opposition to Republicans' rescissions package:
WASHINGTON — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the subcommittee’s fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for the U.S. Department of Education:
Letters to the Trump Administration
Today, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Ranking Member James Clyburn led 204 of their House colleagues in a letter to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner, requesting the Department work with Congress to prevent 170,000 people from losing their homes in the dead of winter.
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.