This is not the first time that the accountability office has ruled that the Trump administration violated the impoundment act. The report, on its own, does not result in any action or specific penalty against the White House or Mr. uses its apportionment authority to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent consistent with the president’s priorities and with the law.” “We disagree with G.A.O.’s opinion,” said Rachel Semmel, a spokeswoman for the budget office. The White House budget office promptly rejected the report’s conclusions, saying it had remained within the law. “There was no coordination of timing with any entity outside of G.A.O.” Armstrong, the office’s general counsel, said in a statement. “Our legal decisions are issued when we have completed all our legal research and are ready to come to a sound conclusion,” Thomas H. Shelby, Republican of Alabama and the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, called the release of the report as the Senate was taking up impeachment “suspicious timing.”Īccountability office officials said the timing of the ruling was coincidental. It conducts audits of federal spending, issues legal decisions on questions about federal contracts and budget matters and examines if federal agencies are complying with other legal requirements imposed on them by Congress. The accountability office is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress.
It limits a president’s power to withhold money that has been allocated by Congress, requiring approval from the legislative branch to do so.
The law at issue, the Impoundment Control Act, was enacted in 1974.
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