Very important piece by Cerin Lindgrensavage and @davidasuper.bsky.social. This behavior by the administration is not only illegal, it is anti-constitutional. thehill.com/opinion/cong...
Congress rejected some of Trump’s proposed budget cuts. OMB is making them anyway.
President Trump and the Office of Management and Budget are accused of violating the separation of powers by attempting to unilaterally withhold funds that Congress specifically appropriated.
thehill.com
Some additional thoughts as I'm watching @senatebudget.bsky.social hearing on the nomination of Hal Duncan to serve as OMB Deputy Director - www.budget.senate.gov/hearings/the...
The Nomination of Mr. Hal Duncan, of Texas, to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget | U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget
The Official U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget
budget.senate.gov
In 1991 White House Chief of Staff John Sununu improperly spent $1.4 million (inflation adjusted) on personal travel. It was a top of the news every night for more than a month & Sununu had to resign. In the second Trump Administration $1.4 million of graft is a rounding error.
Guess the cost of the move just went up? Now it's $7,895,591 for Ed to move its headquarters... openomb.org/file/1152301...
Program Administration | 11523017
Apportionment file 11523017 (Program Administration) retrieved from OMB public records
openomb.org
In other news - OMB apportioning a weirdly specific amount - $5,395,591 - for expenses related to the Department of Education moving headquarters to 500 D Street SW. openomb.org/file/11522585
In other news - OMB apportioning a weirdly specific amount - $5,395,591 - for expenses related to the Department of Education moving headquarters to 500 D Street SW. openomb.org/file/11522585
Program Administration | 11522585
Apportionment file 11522585 (Program Administration) retrieved from OMB public records
openomb.org
OMB has taken five separate cuts at the CDFI program. Last week, they walked back one. Four remain — and at least one may expose OMB officials to personal legal liability. Recently I explained the five cuts and how they happened www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/this-is-wh... 🧵
This is what it looks like when OMB kills your program
The anatomy of a murder by five cuts
ifyoucankeepit.org
Enormous impoundment-related changes in Trump/Vought's Circular A-11 update from Friday, which is OMB's guidance to agencies They: -removed the definition of impoundment -said GAO's impoundment determinations don't matter -claimed pocket rescission authority -claimed profound deferral authority 🧵
Agree w/ Sen. Collins "Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.” Impoundment Control Act says $ must be spent UNLESS Congress acts to rescind it - there's no get-out-of-spending-free card for OMB if they submit their paperwork late.
Politico@politico.com · 11mo agoWhite House declares $4.9B in foreign aid unilaterally canceled in end-run around Congress' funding power.
Seems like a good time to remind folks that sec. 718 of the FY24 FSGG Appropriations Act still applies to FY25 money, and bars the use of funds GOVERNMENT-WIDE “for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States” unless “authorized by Congress.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 12mo agoICE used your taxpayer dollars to trick out a bunch of trucks in new livery, all painted black with "ICE" and a logo printed in gold on the side (and Trump's name in gold on the back window), then shoot a rap video in DC to post on social media. I am not making this up.
Still making my way through this morning's D.C. Circuit opinion in the foreign aid funding case, but right off the bat am incredibly surprised a court would think the Impoundment Control Act precludes plaintiffs seeking relief when the ICA says the opposite. media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/doc...
media.cadc.uscourts.gov
A DC Circuit appeals panel just unanimously denied OMB’s request for a stay in the @protectdemocracy.org case to get the apportionment website back online- so we can all see how OMB is managing your tax dollars - visibility we need now more than ever. media.cadc.uscourts.gov/orders/docs/...
media.cadc.uscourts.gov
I organized an economist amicus brief in V.O.S. Selections Inc. v. Trump, the "Liberation Day" tariffs case in which the government's appeal will soon be considered by the Federal Circuit Appeal Court.
Want to know more about vacancies in Senate-confirmed positions -- their causes, consequences, legal implications, and policy reforms? I wrote a primer aimed at social scientists and those who who like the social sciences. effectivegov.uchicago.edu/primers/bure...
Bureaucratic Vacancies
effectivegov.uchicago.edu
Read this excerpt of an interview with Jay Bhattacharya, new NIH director. And do not miss the last graf. Via @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social www.science.org/content/arti...
So great to see the Appropriations Committees - all four of their leaders on the majority and minority side - stand up for the law that requires OMB to make apportionments public. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/u...
Bipartisan House and Senate Leaders Urge White House to Restore Spending Website
nytimes.com
The OMB's removal of its apportionment website denies the American public information that is critical to ensuring transparency, ethics and integrity in government. CREW and 9 other organizations urge the OMB to immediately restore this website.
Civil Society Presses for Answers on Apportionment Transparency
Congress should ask: Why did the administration take down an important public database?
pogo.org
Here I am this morning in the Washington Post on the Trump Administration's defiance of an "apportionment transparency" law Congress passed to rein in abuses like the first-term Ukraine shakedown. wapo.st/3FXgjey
Opinion | Trump is openly defying a law created to rein in his first-term abuses
Withholding funding led to his first impeachment. Now the White House won’t post its spending moves.
wapo.st
Thread: this flew under the radar but is very concerning. Apportionment involves pro-forma OMB quarterly letters to agencies confirming they can spend $ as appropriated by Congress. OMB has now permanently shuttered the public apportionment website per Politico/letter from OMB to Senator Murray.
Revisiting this helpful explanation of apportionment from @bbkogan.bsky.social as we go into day 4 of OMB cutting off access to apportionments Congress required the agency to make public.
Bobby Kogan@bbkogan.bsky.social · last yr.Third - and this is key and was central to Trump’s first impeachment last time and what just happened - OMB apportions funding. What is an apportionment? OMB lets the agency begin incurring obligations. I will circle back to this in a few posts.
The Supreme Court ruled President Trump cannot remove the Director of the Office of Special Counsel, a key watchdog agency, while a legal challenge moves forward. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/u... Unlike AOTUS, US law says POTUS must give a rationale for removing OSC head. Rule of law holds, for now.
![-supremecourt.gov
Cite as: 604 U.S. _ (2025)
GoRSUCH, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 24A790
SCOTT BESSENT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, ET AL. v. HAMPTON DELLINGER, SPECIAL COUNSEL OF THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL
ON APPLICATION TO VACATE THE ORDER ISSUED BY THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
(February 21, 2025]
This matter concerns the President's action to remove Hampton Dellinger from his position as Special Counsel for the Office of Special Counsel. Dellinger challenged his without-cause removal in the District Court for the District of Columbia.
See 5 U.S. C. §1211(b). On February 12,
2025, the District Court entered a temporary restraining order (TRO) providing that Dellinger should remain in office until the court ruled on his motion for a preliminary injunction. The District Court has scheduled a hearing on that motion for February 26, the day that the TRO expires.
See Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 65(b)(2).
Pending before this Court is the Government's application to vacate the TRO. Dellinger has filed a Response in Opposition. The Government then filed a reply. The question is thus fully briefed before this Court.
Although it acknowledges that this Court typically does not have appellate jurisdiction over TROs, the Government urges us to construe the TRO as a preliminary injunction or to exercise jurisdiction under the All Writs Act in light of the core executive power assertedly restrained. Application 31-32; see 28 U.S. C. §1292(a)(1). In his opposition, Dellinger repeatedly notes that the TRO will "expire by its terms (in] eight [now five] days," Response in Opposition 1,
2
BESSENT v. DELLINGER
GoRSUCH, J., dissenting
that it "lasts only for a very short duration," id., at 15, and that it "is set to expire on February 26," id., at 39.
In light of the foregoing, the application to vacate the order of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia presented to THE CHIEF JUSTICE and by him referred to t…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nvcdncwptloiqkfucqicx2hp/bafkreifzfg7oygtkifrk3pp6guj7oh7hifxs7c7kmpbhxmx2khrk5mn5ea)
OMB director Russ Vought has officially begun carrying out his section of Project 2025. Technical thread to follow, but it’s really important - this is a major path through which the Trump administration will illegally impound funding, refusing to carry out some of our spending laws.
Courts *ordered* the Trump admin to stop its spending freeze Yet ProPublica found place after place where $ is still frozen -hot meals for elderly and disabled -groceries for those in need -maternal & child health services -a clinic that serves the poor www.propublica.org/article/trum...
The Courts Blocked Trump’s Federal Funding Freeze. Agencies Are Withholding Money Anyway.
Agencies continue to suspend funding, despite multiple court orders blocking the federal freeze. Experts say the Trump administration’s actions set the stage for challenges to Congress’ authority — an...
propublica.org
So when that happened, the beneficiaries of appropriations that Nixon tried to cut off sued for the money on constitutional grounds, and they generally won. Congress also passed the Impoundment Control Act setting forth specific and very narrow procedures for the executive withholding funds.
Brief impoundment backgrounder: The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. Money that Congress appropriates generally must be spent. This wasn’t a big issue until Nixon, who tried to (unconstitutionally) restrict appropriated funding for lots of things and claimed the right to do so.
If you’re not worried about Russ Vought you’re not paying attention www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Trump loyalist pushes ‘post-Constitutional’ vision for second term
Russ Vought, the former president’s budget director, is laying the groundwork for a broad expansion of presidential powers.
washingtonpost.com
Here's Trump's incoming budget director saying the president has the constitutional authority to sign a spending bill into law and then immediately ignore it. A profoundly dangerous worldview that Trump illegally did last time and that he and Vought say they will do again this time.
Today, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez proposed a new task for to look at electoral reforms which could break up the two party system in Congress, expand the number of House districts, and move the House to a form of proportional representation. It's a very, very good idea.
Blue Dogs Propose New Task Force to Look at ‘Winner-Take-All’ Election System
The bipartisan task force would investigate structural reforms like multimember districts and adding more House members in an effort to address growing polarization and distrust of Congress.
notus.org
