“A Huge Grab of Power”: Trump Is Defying Congress on Foreign Aid
Officials have withheld more than $500 million in global health money and delayed other aid funds, lawmakers said, despite congressional spending directives.
- The administration of President Donald Trump is failing to follow Congressional mandates on foreign aid, fueling a constitutional crisis over the division of power among the three branches of government.
- Budget Director Russell Vought's Office of Management and Budget has labeled humanitarian and global health funds as "Unallocated," preventing the State Department from distributing money without specific OMB approval.
- Of the more than $9 billion Congress directed for global health last year, the administration obligated just $190 million by March, representing only 5% of average spending in the five years before Trump returned to office.
- Lawmakers demanded the administration use $3.2 billion as directed, calling the withholding an "appalling admission of waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars," though officials have not responded as of June 16.
- If funds remain unobligated by the end of September, the money expires; legal experts warn that such impoundment poses a fundamental threat to the rule of law and Congress's power of the purse.
10 Articles
10 Articles
“Huge grab of power”: Trump is defying Congress on foreign aid
After the Trump administration upended the world’s largest foreign aid provider last year, terminating thousands of programs and firing nearly all of its staff, its plan for the agency was clear: Eliminate it entirely. But because it is a congressionally created agency, President Donald Trump needed lawmakers’ permission to do so. So this year, Trump officials asked Congress for permission to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development…
Defense One
'A huge grab of power': Trump is defying Congress on foreign aid
After the Trump administration upended the world’s largest foreign aid provider last year, terminating thousands of programs and firing nearly all of its staff, its plan for the agency was clear: Eliminate it entirely. But because it is a congressionally created agency, President Donald Trump needed lawmakers’ permission to do so. So this year, Trump officials asked Congress for permission to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development…
‘A huge grab of power’: Trump is defying congress on foreign aid
After the Trump administration upended the world’s largest foreign aid provider last year, terminating thousands of programs and firing nearly all of its staff, its plan for the agency was clear: Eliminate it entirely.
Trump Is Defying Congress on Foreign Aid
ProPublica: "Officials have delayed spending on global health, have not issued funds for some projects and have labeled money destined for humanitarian aid as 'unallocated' to control how it can be spent... And when lawmakers have asked about their actions, officials often have not responded."
Congress explicitly said 'no' to this Trump order — and he's defying them anyway
After the Trump administration upended the world’s largest foreign aid provider last year, terminating thousands of programs and firing nearly all of its staff, its plan for the agency was clear: Eliminate it entirely.But because it is a congressionally created agency, President Donald Trump needed lawmakers’ permission to do so. So this year, Trump officials asked Congress for permission to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development …
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