Eloise Pasikoff

Yeah, so Congress has the power of the purse, right? It decides how money should be spent. Impoundment, it is an odd word. is when the president kind of holds back money that Congress has approved for a specific purpose. Trump and his allies, like Russ Vogt, argue a president has the right or should have the right to not spend those funds.

And that's raising alarm bells across Washington that Trump may be trying to overstep his power. So what does the law say about that? Well, there is a law on the books. It's called the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. It requires that the president spend money as Congress directs. I talked to Eloise Pasikoff. She's a Georgetown law professor.

She says it's all part of the system's checks and balances.

But Vote has argued, and I'd say forcefully, that it's unconstitutional. Trump is nominating him for his old job, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vote told me last year when talking about Project 2025 that empowerment could be useful. And here he is talking about it on Fox Business.

Well, I mean, he tested it out once before in his first term. He impounded foreign aid for Ukraine, but Congress objected. It was part of his first impeachment. So we'll see what Congress does this time with Republicans in control. Several of Trump's top aides want to use it. That includes Elon Musk, the tech billionaire, and former GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy.

They say bypassing the law could help them in their work on the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short. And Trump says he'll direct agencies to identify part of their budgets to impound. He also say it's a way to, quote, choke off the money to parts of the government he doesn't like.

Yeah. And I talked to experts about this, you know, and they say it is almost certainly going to be headed to the Supreme Court. and that Trump would have to argue that his constitutional powers will override the 1974 law. But they also say that the Supreme Court has acted favorably toward Trump in terms of executive power, and they think it will be sympathetic again this time.