No Authority to Freeze Funding, No Authority to Unilaterally Eliminate Government Services
WASHINGTON — In two legal decisions released this morning, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) reaffirmed that the President has no inherent authority to unilaterally freeze enacted appropriations. House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) released the following statement on these decisions:
“The President isn’t laser-focused on the cost-of-living crisis that he is actually making worse. He promised to fight for the working class but instead put Elon Musk and billionaires in charge of the government. Since his first day in office, President Trump has teamed up with unchecked billionaire Elon Musk to steal from American taxpayers.
“This is not complicated: Congress passed, and the President signed into law, billions in investments in critical infrastructure, and support for communities across the country – such as critical funding that the Institute of Museum and Library Services owes to public libraries across the country – and those promises must be delivered. Whether a particular Executive Order or Presidential Memorandum is the justification this Administration is using to steal from people is missing the point – the point is that the American taxpayer, veterans, farmers, and communities across this country are owed these investments that were promised in law. It should be obvious that the American people did not elect President Trump to steal from them, but today the Comptroller General reminded him of exactly that.”
Institute for Museum and Library Sciences– On March 14, the Trump Administration issued Executive Order 14238, the first step in an attempt to unilaterally shutter at least seven government agencies without seeking Congressional approval to do so. The Acting Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), together with the Office of Management and Budget, conspired to choke off funding for IMLS, even as the President’s bill to fund IMLS at the same levels as a year ago was moving through Congress. Today, GAO found that their effort to freeze funding provided to IMLS for the support of public libraries in communities across the country was not just unlawful, but that this funding could not be frozen even if they had followed the special procedures of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA), because it is legally owed to identifiable recipients.
For details on how IMLS provides critical support to public libraries across the country, see the interactive map on their website, available here.
Wind Leasing and Permitting Memorandum– On President Trump’s first day back in office, he issued a memorandum directing agencies to review leasing and permitting practices for wind energy projects. In correspondence with the Department of Energy (DOE), the Administration told GAO that no funding was frozen for wind projects pursuant to that one specific Presidential Memorandum. Assuming DOE told GAO the truth, the question remains: Which unlawful orders and from whom have resulted in over $77 billion in frozen funds and cancelled contracts at DOE?
Both of these GAO decisions reiterate the primacy of Congress’s decision-making when it comes to spending issues and makes clear the single-central issue at hand: if the President wishes to change spending laws, then he must come to Congress and ask them to do so – he has no inherent authority to impound funding, and never has.
Ranking Member DeLauro has been sounding the alarm on impoundment since President Trump was reelected. In December 2024, she released this fact sheet laying the groundwork on President Trump’s uninformed and unconstitutional impoundment plan.
For more information on how President Trump is stealing from American communities, including by freezing funding or cancelling contracts totaling over $425 billion, among them IMLS and Department of Energy funding, see the joint tracker released with Vice Chair Murray, available here.
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