Mastodawn

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

A federal watchdog has opened dozens of investigations to determine if #Trump & his top aides have illegally withheld billions of dollars in congressionally approved funds.

Now, #Republican lawmakers are working alongside the White House to stymie those inquiries & the officials conducting them, in a move that could help Trump seize more control over the nation’s #budget.

#law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/us/politics/trump-spending-government-accountability-office.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

White House Pushes to Block Government Accountability Office Inquiries Into Its Cuts

Republicans are seeking to undermine the Government Accountability Office as it investigates, and considers suing, over the Trump administration’s withholding federal funds.

The New York Times

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

The attacks target the #GovernmentAccountability Office [#GAO], a roughly century-old agency formed to help #Congress keep track of #federal #spending. The legislative office primarily produces detailed reports on ways that Washington can save money, sometimes rankling admins that are not so keen about its allegations of waste.

#law #ExecutiveBranch #Trump #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

But #oversight officials have recently found themselves in a direct & highly unusual confrontation with the White House over the #power of the purse. The #watchdog chiefly enforces a 1970s #law that prohibits the president from defying congressional instructions on #spending. Since taking office, #Trump has sought to test that law, working swiftly to disband entire agencies & programs without lawmakers’ approval.

#ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

The #GAO has twice determined in recent months that Trump’s actions violated rules that prohibit him from unilaterally canceling #funding, a move known as #impoundment. The office has 46 open investigations into other allegations that #Trump illegally withheld funds, the agency confirmed this week.

#law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

The inquiries concern the White House’s handling of #ForeignAid, such as money for #Ukraine, along with #climate investments, including funds for #wind #energy & clean school buses, acc/to internal documents from June viewed by NYT. The admin’s treatment of #PublicHealth & #education #grants, such as those for #NIH & the #childcare program known as #HeadStart, are also being investigated, the documents show.

#Trump #law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

#RussVought, the White House #budget director, has strenuously denied any wrongdoing, arguing that the admin seeks to manage taxpayer dollars more effectively. He & his deputies have also initiated a series of attacks on the #GAO, deriding it as partisan [ridiculous] & publicly refusing to comply w/some of its investigations.

#Trump #law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

And #House #Republicans have recently proposed enfeebling their own #watchdog. Party lawmakers unveiled #legislation to halve the #GAO’s budget for next fiscal year, potentially decimating its staff while stripping away some of its #power to oversee #spending.

#Trump #law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

Under existing #law, the #accountability office may sue to force a president to release illegally withheld funds. In a sign of the seriousness surrounding #Trump’s recent spending moves, the #GAO said in May it would retain outside counsel that could assist in #litigation, acc/to correspondence viewed by NYT. Trump’s top aides have previously said the office is prohibited by the #Constitution from challenging the president in this way [wrong].

#ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #RussVought

Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general in charge of the office, stressed that the #GAO is “not itching to go to court,” adding that “no decisions” have been made. He said his office would “continue to give thought” to what might prompt a lawsuit, even as he acknowledged the fact that “#Congress isn’t somewhat unified behind” his group’s work.

#Trump #law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

Dodaro also stressed that his team had a “well-established tradition of #nonpartisanship, despite allegations to the contrary,” as a defender of congressional interests.

“The #ExecutiveBranch & the #Trump administration have a very expansive view of the president’s authority,” he said. “We have a #statutory responsibility to protect the prerogative of #Congress & the #power of the purse.”

#law #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

Under the #Constitution, that #power is afforded to #Congress. But #Trump & #RussVought have sought to reconfigure the #budget on the *premise* that they have expansive authority to act on their own, a position echoed by some #Republicans in Congress [only when they’re in power].

Last week, Republicans approved a set of #spending #cuts formally sought by the White House, revoking $9B in enacted funding for #PublicBroadcasting & #ForeignAid.

#law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

But #Democrats, who overwhelmingly opposed the clawbacks, previously estimated that #Trump continues to impede more than $400B in additional spending without #Congress’ approval. That includes >$5 billion in #PublicSchool funds that the White House halted in July, according to lawmakers.

#law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

At the center of the battle is the #GAO, which #Congress created in 1921 & expanded about a half-century later. Lawmakers at the time looked to assert themselves against the White House, after President Richard M. #Nixon repeatedly defied their instructions on #spending.

#Trump #law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

Eloise Pasachoff, a professor at Georgetown University’s law school who has studied the #GAO, said it was “not created as a partisan body.” She added that it has primarily been “an evenhanded evaluator of how both programs work & spending works.”

The office has long worked to identify trillions of dollars in savings, an effort lauded by both parties that long preceded #Trump & his *cost-cutting* operation known as #DOGE.

#law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

But the GAO’s recent work on #impoundment has proved more politically contentious, & under #Trump, it has been met w/fierce #Republican opposition.

In May, the #watchdog found that the admin wrongly blocked funds under a $5B program to build #EV charging stations, a component of the #Biden-era #bipartisan infrastructure #law that Trump sees as *wasteful*. In June, the #GAO determined the admin mishandled funding for #libraries & #museums, after Trump curtailed the agency overseeing the money.

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

The GAO’s findings coincided with a set of lawsuits challenging the interruption of #federal dollars, including a new case filed last week by a coalition of #states affected by the slowdown in #PublicSchool #funding. Dodaro, who has served at #GAO in some capacity for more than 50 years, said the primary issue is not the specific money that has been withheld but “the process” the #Trump admin used to do so.

#law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

The scrutiny has enraged a WH focused on *cutting spending* that does not align w/Trump’s political views & priorities.

In a May letter to the #GAO, Mark #Paoletta, #OMB general counsel, described GAO’s requests as “voluminous, burdensome & inappropriately invasive.” He said the #Trump admin would stop cooperating in #impoundment investigations, claiming that its frequent requests for docs “undermine agency efforts to faithfully *implement* [subvert] the #law & the president’s priorities.”

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

The next month, #Paoletta told a federal agency directly that it should “pay no heed whatsoever to GAO’s conclusions, as they are incorrect” on the matter of #impoundment. Paoletta said the #GAO took an overly broad view of the #law, & #Trump could legally withhold money temporarily “to determine the most appropriate use of the funds” [nope].

#law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

The feud dates back to Trump’s 1st term, when the office found that the admin wrongly withheld #military #aid to #Ukraine in an inquiry that set the stage for #Democrats to #impeach #Trump.

#RussVought & Paoletta, who held the same roles at the time, denied the charges. In a 2021 letter to #Congress, the 2 men faulted the #GAO for taking an “over-expansive & incorrect view of Congress’s #power of the purse, which infringes upon the president’s own constitutional authorities.”
#law #AbuseOfPower

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

Since returning to office, #RussVought has argued that the federal #law limiting #Trump’s spending powers is unconstitutional. And Dodaro has acknowledged that the admin has “not been cooperative” in the investigations.
The WH disabled a website this spring that had helped #oversight ofcls track #federal #spending, claiming it revealed sensitive info. The #GAO described the move in April as disruptive & potentially #illegal, w/“implications” for “congressional oversight,” incl’g on #impoundment.

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

On Monday, a federal #court ruled — in a case brought by #PublicInterest groups — that the #Trump admin had illegally disabled the website.

While the #GAO is a #legislative agency, its leader is appointed by the president based on a set of recommendations from #Congress, then confirmed by the #Senate. It is a unique structure, which #Paoletta described in 2024 as “clearly unconstitutional,” arguing that it limits whom the president may choose.

#law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

Lisa Gilbert, the co-president of Public Citizen, a #watchdog group, said that #Trump has proved “all too willing” to “do away with the watchdogs.” She said it had the effect of “making it harder to oversee the actions” of POTUS.
#RussVought has also sought to increase the budget of #OMB, describing such a move as a counterweight to congressional investigators. #Republicans ultimately delivered $100M in new #funding for Vought as part of the tax package Trump signed into #law earlier this month.

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

In contrast, #House #Republicans in June proposed to strike nearly $400 million from the #GAO’s budget as part of a larger *spending* measure for next fiscal year. Its author, Rep David Valadao (R-CA), framed it in June as part of a broader crackdown on “unnecessary spending” in the legislative branch. But #RussVought appeared to offer another explanation on social media, writing: “Maybe GAO shouldn’t be partisan.”

#Trump #law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

The #House measure, if passed, could force the #accountability office to reduce its staff by at least 2,200 people, acc/to an estimate that the #GAO furnished to lawmakers in June. The office warned that the cut would leave it unable to do work sought by both parties to uncover federal waste.

“It would have, if that were to happen, grave & pervasive effects on our services to #Congress,” Dodaro said in an interview.

#Trump #law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

The #House bill would also block the #accountability office from suing the government to force the release of frozen funds, unless Dodaro & his successors obtain congressional support. That could make it harder for the office to conduct #oversight of #Trump, though #Senate #Republicans have not targeted the #GAO as part of their own appropriations bill for 2026. A spox for Valadao did not respond to a request for comment.

#law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Nonilex Jul 22, 2025

“They don’t want any #accountability,” said Representative Rosa DeLauro, the Connecticut Democrat who leads her party on the chamber’s Appropriations Committee. “They’re annoyed the #GAO found the White House is stealing funds from taxpayers. That is the only plausible explanation for this.”

#Trump #law #ExecutiveBranch #AbuseOfPower #Project2025 #RussVought

Darwin Woodka Jul 22, 2025

The constitution is unconstitutional. Ok.

Vought needs to go. He's just such a fucking dick.