This week, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to enact the unconstitutional Project 2025 agenda. It all started with President Trump’s Day One executive order to withhold foreign aid, which resulted in a freeze on funding for PEPFAR, a multi-agency public health initiative spearheaded by the State Department that distributes billions of dollars each year to combat HIV/AIDS worldwide. Now, the administration has moved to pause all federal grants and loan disbursements, in what has been described as “blatantly illegal,” and a “massive, massive power grab.” OMB Director nominee Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025, has repeatedly stated his belief that the executive branch should have the power to ignore appropriations laws duly enacted by Congress. Trump’s actions amount to a direct assault on the U.S. Constitution, ripping power away from Congress and putting American families in danger by unilaterally withholding funding for disaster aid, farms, cancer research, schools. But don’t just take our word for it:
The American Prospect: Trump’s Most Lawless Action Yet.
- “But the pauses: Those need more attention. Because they are actually the most lawless, brazen, unconstitutional actions that this administration has yet taken, and if sanctioned by a conservative Supreme Court, they would amount to a full disbanding of our system of government. […] And now, as Marisa Kabas first reported, all federal grants and loans have been paused in a memo from Matthew Vaeth, the acting head of the Office of Management and Budget. This is supposed to go into effect at 5:00 p.m. today.”
- “But to leave it at that would dignify the alleged logic behind the request. It does not matter what executive action Trump takes; he cannot limit, halt, or refuse to carry out spending authorized and appropriated by Congress and signed into law.”
- “This action is willful and deliberate. It is designed to pick a fight over spending, and relies on fanciful theories that would render Congress a vestigial organ in the governmental order. It means to nullify the congressional spending power by presidential fiat. And it hopes to spark litigation whereby the judiciary assents to that transfer of power, emasculating itself in the process. The Prospect documented these attempted dictatorial maneuvers last July. Russell Vought, Trump’s handpicked selection to run OMB when confirmed, has laid out his strategy in detail. He wants to resurrect the practice of withholding congressionally appropriated funds known as impoundment, which violates federal law and Supreme Court precedent.”
The Economist: A Controversial Idea To Hand Even More Power To The President.
- “Leading the Office of Management and Budget (omb) may sound mundane, but the role is one of Washington’s most important. Russell Vought, who did the job for the final two years of Donald Trump’s first term, is poised to return. After a confirmation vote planned for the coming days, he is expected to test the bounds of presidential power as the new administration tries to reshape the federal government.”
- “Mr Trump ran ‘on the issue of impoundment’, Mr Vought said at his hearing, and ‘200 years of presidents have used this authority’. He said the Impoundment Control Act (ica) of 1974, passed to rein in presidents after Richard Nixon held back billions of dollars for education, the armed forces and the environment, was unconstitutional. (It is one of several Watergate-era constraints on the presidency that Mr Trump wants to be rid of.) His inner circle is speaking as one on the matter. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal after the election, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy wrote that Mr Trump could cut federal spending ‘through executive action alone’.”
MSNBC: Democrats: ‘Insane’ Trump Power Grab On Federal Grants ‘Blatantly Disobeys The Law’.
- “If the White House follows through on its latest power grab, the ‘pause’ will apparently continue until at least mid-February. […] There are, to be sure, more questions than answers about what exactly this will mean in practical terms. The simple reality is that federal grants finance much of modern American life, and if the money simply stops flowing, because Team Trump says some of the disbursements might conflict with the president’s wishes, the effects are difficult to measure.”
- “It is not a secret that Trump and his team, after running on an authoritarian-style campaign platform, want to wrestle control over the power of the purse, shifting authority from Congress to the White House, despite the framework of our constitutional system of government. It’s precisely why there’s been so much discussion of late about the Impoundment Control Act. We’re now starting to see what those ambitions look like when pursued as a matter of government policy.”
New York Magazine: Trump’s Blatantly Illegal Funding Freeze Causes Nationwide Chaos.
- “This move is certainly a prelude to an assertion that Trump has the right to ‘impound’ congressionally appropriated dollars whenever he imperially wills it. Congress imposed strict rules on presidential ‘impoundments’ in 1974, after Richard Nixon abused the president’s power to delay or slightly modify appropriated dollars. Russell Vought has regularly asserted that this action by Congress was, in fact, unconstitutional. So other than striking terror in the hearts of ‘deep state’ bureaucrats and Democratic-leaning poor people, the purpose of the ‘pause’ is probably to create a Supreme Court test of Vought’s hypothesis. There’s no question that the ‘pause’ is illegal if the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act is not struck down…”
USA Today: ‘Catastrophic’: Trump’s Pause In Federal Grants Prompts Lawsuits From 6 States, Nonprofits.
- “A Trump administration memo pausing federal grants and loans is facing immediate legal scrutiny from six Democratic-led states and separately from a coalition of advocacy groups for nonprofits, health care and small businesses who told a federal judge the Republican president’s plans would be ‘catastrophic.’”
NPR: Trump Memo To Halt Federal Funds Triggers Confusion And Constitutional Questions.
- “Federal agencies, states and other organizations that receive money from the federal government are scrambling to understand the details of a new Trump administration memo that appears to halt federal funding and grant programs. The impact of the short memo, released Monday, is causing widespread confusion.”
- “Critics call the demand for a funding freeze unlawful because Congress has already approved the money to be spent, but the administration is arguing that this action is not full impoundment — and instead a temporary review.”
The Hill: GOP Lawmakers Grapple With Fallout From Trump Executive Actions.
- “Republican lawmakers are grappling with the fallout from President Trump’s first week in office, which has brought a dizzying array of changes to Washington and has already spawned major controversies.”
- “Trump’s firing of 17 inspectors general, his sweeping pardon of Jan. 6 protesters and a stop order on most foreign assistance has left Republican senators scrambling to keep up. That’s to say nothing of Trump’s threats to impound congressionally appropriated funds, his terminating of personal protective details for former national security officials and skipping background checks for short-term security clearances.”
Common Dreams: ‘Five-Alarm Fire’: Trump’s Federal Funding Pause Sparks Fear and Confusion.
- “Calling a federal grant and loan funding freeze announced by the Trump administration ‘a massive, massive overreach,’ U.S. Sen. Patty Murray was among those expressing fury on Tuesday over a move that could have far-reaching implications for millions of Americans who rely on federal food assistance and education and healthcare programs, among other necessities.
- “The Trump administration’s move was ideologically driven, the memo suggests, with each federal agency required to conduct a ‘comprehensive analysis’ in the coming weeks to ensure its grant and loan initiatives operate within the bounds of President Donald Trump’s executive orders banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, denying the existence of transgender people, and limiting spending on renewable energy.”
- “The precise impact of the administration’s order, which is set to go into effect at 5:00 pm ET on Tuesday, is not made clear by the memo, but Vaeth stated that the federal government spent more than $3 trillion in fiscal year 2024 on federal financial assistance including grants and loans.”
Forbes: Can Trump Cancel Government Funds Through Impoundment? What To Know As He Pauses All Federal Assistance.
- “President Donald Trump’s administration issued a memo Monday ordering all federal assistance to be temporarily paused, as Trump and his allies have argued he can block government funds that Congress has already authorized, despite a federal law forbidding it.”
- “Trump and his allies, including incoming Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, have argued the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional and the president has expansive power to cancel congressionally authorized spending, going against the prevailing interpretation of federal law, which is that presidents cannot unilaterally cancel congressional funds.”
- “Legal experts suggested Monday Trump was violating the Impoundment Control Act with his administration’s decision to pause all federal aid, even if it’s only temporary.”