President Donald Trump's nominee for Office of Management and Budget director, Russell Vought, testifies during the Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing in the Dirksen Senate Building on Jan. 22, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
Vought’s opponents voiced concern that his leadership would lead to more cases like the freeze of federal grants and loans disclosed in an OMB memo on Jan. 27, a move that Democrats say was illegal and violated the Impoundment Control Act.
"As much as Trump desires it, the president is not a king," Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told reporters on Jan. 28. "As much as Trump desires it, a law is not a suggestion."
"These are not questions of opinion," Merkley said. "These are principles at the heart of our constitutional system. It's at the heart of our checks and balances, and thus we have a constitutional crisis."
Vought repeatedly defended his stance that the Impoundment Control Act was unconstitutional in multiple confirmation hearings and claimed that presidents historically could spend less than what Congress had earmarked prior to 1974.
Proponents of executive impoundment frequently point to Thomas Jefferson’s administration in 1803, when Congress appropriated funding for 15 gunboats. However, Jefferson held off on purchasing the boats to not aggravate France amid delicate discussions between then-Secretary of State James Madison and Napoleon. The purchase of the boats eventually became unnecessary following the Louisiana Purchase.
Additionally, Vought’s Center for Renewing America, a nonprofit Vought founded in 2021, has said impoundment allows the executive branch to exert fiscal discipline and that the president has the authority to determine if funds are used in the most efficient manner.
Vought did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
However, according to multiple legal experts, the Constitution and the courts are clear that spending appropriations fall under the parameters of the legislative branch.
Michael McConnell, director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, told Fox News Digital, "The president has the constitutional obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and that includes spending.
"So I don't know where Mr. Vought gets the view that somehow the president has the right to decide what the government is going to spend money on," he said. "This is Congress' job."
Despite Trump and Vought’s views that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional, McConnell said that he believed there is "no reasonable prospect that the court is going to agree with that.
"The person who would have been the recipient of the funding will have some standing to sue," McConnell said. "So, I would assume that if there's an impoundment, there will be an immediate lawsuit under the Impoundment Control Act."
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Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., previously introduced legislation that would repeal the Impoundment Control Act. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
While many legal experts agree the legislative branch is the proper channel for reforming the Impoundment Control Act, Chafetz doubts there is an appetite to do so and that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle would ultimately view such attempts as an "attack on their institution."
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As a result, Vladeck said that the Trump administration only has two means to navigate the Impoundment Control Act: either adhere to it or modify it.
"As for what we can expect going forward, it's entirely possible that the administration will try to push the envelope," Vladeck said. "But the onus ought to be on the administration to follow the procedure Congress and the president agreed to in 1974 — or to make the case for why he shouldn't have to."
Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/constitutional-crisis-impoundment-control-act-takes-center-stage-washington