Jan. 16, 2020-As the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump got underway with the swearing in of Chief Justice John Roberts and most of the 100 U.S. senators, a government agency issued a report today saying it was illegal for the Executive Branch to withold to Ukraine in 2019.
“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” the legal decision by the Government Accountability Office said.
The specific law in question is the Impoundment Control Act.
The timing of the GAO decision is relevant because it gets to the heart of the impeachment trial now underway in the U.S. Senate.
According to the GAO, Congress had appropriated $250 million in U.S. funds for Ukraine. The intent was to give that country “assistance, including training; equipment; lethal assistance; logistics support, supplies and services; sustainment; and intelligence support to the military and national security forces.”
The Office of Management and Budget had until September 30, 2019 to distribute the $125 million of those funds through the U.S. Defense Department. The Defense Department had certified to Congress that Ukraine had completed necessary defense-related institutional reforms.
The OMB, however, called for a pause in the planned distribution on July 25, August 6 and August 15.
Congress has the ‘Power of the Purse’
The GAO decided that the Executive Branch is at fault because it does not have the power to ignore or amend enacted law. The legal decision says, “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.'”
A president can veto a bill, the GAO said, but he/she cannot ignore or override a law. “The Constitution grants the President no unilateral authority to withhold funds from obligation,” the GAO said.
The nine-page decision is available through the GAO website.
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