Imagine if you were provided $50 million to build a tank, but you were able to do the job properly for only $32 million. In the normal world, you would be applauded for getting the job done under budget. You might even get a promotion. In Washington, D.C., you are violating the law according to many.
Under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) — as interpreted by many in Congress and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) — if the president intentionally tries to spend less money than Congress appropriates to get the job done, he is breaking the law.
In 2019, the Democrat-controlled House impeached President Donald Trump, in part, because he paused the spending of about $200 million in funds for Ukraine for 60 days to conduct a policy review based on national security concerns. (Disclosure: Mark Paoletta served as OMB general counsel and issued the legal opinion authorizing this pause on these funds). The GAO determined that this 60-day pause violated the ICA because the president was prohibited from pausing this money despite these concerns. Congress used this pause as a basis to impeach the president. You could not dream up a more bizarre and unconstitutional attack on the presidency.
Nonsensical Appropriation Law
Enacted in 1974, the ICA made it unlawful for the president not to spend every dollar Congress appropriated regardless of whether he needed to use all the funds. This law went against 200 years of history in which both Congress and the president agreed he was
