When Congress authorizes the spending of money by the executive branch, it is not the prerogative of the president to put a stop on that spending. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 affirms that principle. Therefore, from reading the Constitution and from contemplating the notion of “checks and balances,” one would think that when the president does attempt to block spending that has been approved by Congress, Congress would be up in arms about it. However, there’s a factor that the framers did not take into account when they designed the structure of government: political parties. The spending in question was authorized by past Congresses, either with bipartisan or all-Democratic support. The current Congress has a Republican majority, and nearly all of the Republicans in Congress seem unconditionally loyal to Trump, no matter what he does.
Trump did rescind one of his orders, freezing the payments of most domestic grants, but some other freezes are still in effect. What’s getting the greatest amount of attention is the cutting off of funds for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Trump has claimed, without evidence, that there’s massive fraud in the spending, and he has also made a big deal out of reports that US money is being used to encourage transgender proclivities in overseas youth. He’s in the process, as we speak, of putting most of the staff of USAID on furlough (article in Politico), and the funds for a lot of programs have been cut off. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is now running USAID, says exceptions will be made for live-saving programs, but it’s not clear how much of that will be a reality. Some, including Republicans, are pointing out that USAID is one of the ways that the US competes with China for global influence (article in TheHill).
He’s also cut off money that was authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, signed by Biden in 2022, to be dispensed through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). At the moment, according to this article in Politico, he’s doing so even in defiance of a federal court order to release the funds.
Trump’s support base things the EPA is superfluous, thinks climate change is a hoax, and thinks the United States is too generous to the rest of the world, so these actions aren’t likely to bother them much. But Trump is acting like an autocrat, and it is going to be very significant to see what limits on his power he actually faces.
