Posted on 05/23/2025 3:51:57 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The White House budget office on Friday rejected the conclusion of a nonpartisan congressional watchdog that said the Trump administration is breaking the law by not spending funds as directed by Congress.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on Thursday that said the Trump administration violated the Impoundment Control Act by blocking spending on electric vehicle charging stations.
The $5 billion in funding was from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. Blocking the spending has put construction projects planned by states into limbo. The GAO said the Trump administration needed to go through a formal rescissions process — where Congress agrees to the cuts — in order to stop the spending, rather than unilaterally cutting it off.
Trump's budget director Russ Vought on social media dismissed the GAO report — and other similar GAO investigations — saying they were "non-events with no consequence. Rearview mirror stuff."
"They are going to call everything an impoundment because they want to grind our work to manage taxpayer dollars effectively to a halt," Vought said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation told NPR that the GAO report "shows a complete misunderstanding of the law" but they added that the department is reviewing and updating the guidance on the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program "because the implementation of NEVI has failed miserably."
This is the newest salvo in a fight about government spending
Under the Constitution, Congress has the power of the purse. After funding disputes with President Richard Nixon, Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act in 1974 that requires presidents to spend money as Congress directs.
Trump said on the campaign trail that he would challenge that law — and Vought, who also led the Office of Management and Budget in Trump's first...
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Why NPR should be defunded.
Ignore the report. Defend the cuts with the Obama / Biden precedents.
nonpartisan? Bullsh*t.
The Constitution only gives Congress the power to appropriate. Not direct.
NPR?
Truth?
Never the twain shall meet.
NPR, you’ve shat upon your house far too often. We not only don’t believe you, we don’t give a shi...er...Dorkbama about anything you say.
The entire impoundment concept is absurd on its face.
Let us say Congress authorizes one million dollars be spent on X.
If the president spends 999,999 dollars is he illegally impounding the one dollar?
How about 990,000 dollars spent. Is that illegally impounding ten thousand dollars?
How about 900,000 dollars spent. Is that illegally impounding one hundred thousand dollars?
Where is that line drawn?
Who gets to draw it?
(The logical answer would be that Congress should specify minimum spending requirements, if any—and silence means there are no such minimum spending requirements.)
Any GAO report should be DOA. In fact, GAO needs to be DOGED. What good has the GAO provide for American taxpayers in the last 20 years? Apparently, they haven’t been doing anything, when one considers the amount of fraud, waste, and abuse that DOGE has discovered in a few months.
There is no such thing as nonpartisan.
Correct.
Yeah, why are we discussing a past event. It's time to look forward to more winning.
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