Trump’s Federal Funding Freeze and It’s Rescission
The OMB (Office of Management and Budget) halted federal funding of many programs to assess whether they were meeting the President Trump’s objectives. https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25506186/m-25-13-temporary-pause-to-review-agency-grant-loan-and-other-financial-assistance-programs.pdf Their goal was to align federal grants, contracts, and loans with Trump’s new priorities. Three trillion in federal program funds were impacted by the pause/freeze/impoundment.
The Constitutional issue is that Congress passes laws and appropriates funding, the “power of the purse”. Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution The President’s role is to duly and faithfully execute those laws, not to rewrite the laws and appropriations to meet the newly elected President’s priorities as expressed in a blizzard of Presidential executive orders of varying degrees of legality. Article II Section 3 of the US Constitution
In Train v. City of New York. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/420/35/, the Supreme Court unanimously held that President Nixon could not impound funds appropriated by Congress for municipal sewers and sewage treatment plants. Shortly after this standoff between the executive and congressional branches, Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act, https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title2/chapter17B&edition=prelim, which governs the procedures which the President can use to seek Congressional approval for recission or delay of duly authorized funding.
Trump believes that the Impoundment Control Act itself is an unconstitutional restriction on the President’s innate authority. He may have been looking for a test case to take to the Supreme Court. In any event, OMB has now backed down and rescinded its orders to temporarily halt federal funding. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/regulatory/trump-admin-orders-temporary-pause-most-federal-financial-assistance “What’s next” is unclear to almost everybody. https://thehill.com/homenews/5113527-omb-federal-funding-freeze-rescind/