IS ANYONE SURPRISED?
The Government Accountability Office, the U.S. government's internal auditing agency,
published a decision today which concludes that the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump White House violated the law when it withheld financial aid appropriated by Congress for security assistance to Ukraine.
The Constitution specifically vests Congress with the power of the purse, providing that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” U.S. Const. art. I, § 9, cl. 7. The Constitution also vests all legislative powers in Congress and sets forth the procedures of bicameralism and presentment, through which the President may accept or veto a bill passed by both Houses of Congress, and Congress may subsequently override a presidential veto. Id., art. I, § 7, cl. 2, 3. The President is not vested with the power to ignore or amend any such duly enacted law. See Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417, 438 (1998) (the Constitution does not authorize the President “to enact, to amend, or to repeal statutes”). Instead, he must “faithfully execute” the law as Congress enacts it. U.S. Const., art. II, § 3.
The GAO report does not characterize the reason for the delay in withholding the aid―i.e., this nonpartisan agency of Congress does not take a position in its decision regarding whether President Trump was trying to extract improper political concessions from Ukraine. The decision only states that "[f]aithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law."
