A former U.S. attorney has warned that President Donald Trump‘s attempt to freeze certain federal funds could incite a “constitutional confrontation,” given the potential overriding of Congress‘ fiscal powers.
“Can a president unilaterally substitute their own funding decisions for those of Congress?” Joyce Vance said Thursday. “The answer is, they can’t.”
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.
Why It Matters
Legal and constitutional objections could prevent Trump’s plans from being carried out. These have been at the forefront of the mounting list of lawsuits against the White House since the announcement was made on Monday evening.
Economic objections have also been raised. Dr. Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute previously told Newsweek that “the long-term consequences would be catastrophic” and “guaranteed to cause a steep recession” as federal grant funding is pulled out of the economy.
What To Know
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced the pause on federal grants and loans via a memo sent to the heads of all executive departments and agencies on Monday.
Acting Director Matthew J. Vaeth said that the freeze was required as the agency conducted a review to ensure that federal dollars were not being used to promote “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.”
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After concerns were raised that this could impact specific programs on which many Americans rely, the OMB released a follow-up memo. This clarified that “in addition to Social Security and Medicare…mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause.”
According to Vance, however, the president does not necessarily have the authority to override Congress’ constitutional power of the purse, which would be defined as an example of “impoundment” and proscribed by the 1974 Impoundment Control Act.
She wrote on her Substack blog that this act “effectively ended a president’s power to impound funds,” a ruling reaffirmed by the Supreme Court‘s 1975 decision in Train v. City of New York.
“The only way Trump can proceed with impoundment is if the [Impoundment Control Act] is unconstitutional and Train is reversed,” Vance added.
What People Are Saying
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, in an article for the Los Angeles Times: “The law forbids presidential impoundment of funds, but under certain circumstances allows a brief delay and gives the president means to ask Congress to reconsider an appropriation, known as rescission…Trump has not made the required notifications to Congress, and so his order this week to halt spending is patently illegal.”
Former OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta, in an article for the Center for Renewing America think tank in September 2024: Paoletta argued that Article II of the U.S. Constitution concerning the executive branch “vests the President with authority to decline to spend the full amount of an appropriated fund.”
Paoletta said the Impound Control Act was unconstitutional, adding: “The President has the power, arguably the duty, to decline to enforce a law that is unconstitutional.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, at a Tuesday briefing: “The past four years, we’ve seen the Biden administration spend money like drunken sailors. It’s a big reason we’ve had an inflation crisis in this country, and it’s incumbent upon this administration to make sure, again, that every penny is being accounted for honestly.”
“This is a temporary pause and a freeze to ensure that all of the money going out from Washington D.C. is aligned with the president’s agenda,” she added.
What Happens Next
U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan ordered a “brief administrative stay” on the freeze minutes before it was set to take effect on Tuesday in response to a lawsuit filed by several nonprofit organizations.
The ruling applies solely to existing programs and will remain in place until Monday afternoon, after which another court hearing is scheduled that morning to address the matter.
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