impoundment of appropriated funds
{{Short description|Budget control method}}
{{other uses|Impoundment (disambiguation)}}
Impoundment is an act by a President of the United States of not spending money that has been appropriated by the U.S. Congress. Thomas Jefferson was the first president to exercise the power of impoundment in 1801. The power was available to all presidents up to and including Richard Nixon, and was regarded as a power inherent to the office, although one with limits. The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 was passed in response to high impoundments under President Nixon.{{Cite web |last=Kosar |first=Kevin |date=2015-10-21 |title=So... this is Nixon's fault? |url=https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/10/richard-nixon-congressional-budget-control-act-history-000282/ |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=The Agenda |language=en}} The Act removed that power, and Train v. City of New York (whose facts predate the 1974 Act, but which was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court after its passage) closed potential loopholes in the 1974 Act.{{Citation needed|reason=What is the source of this analysis?|date=February 2025}} The president's ability to indefinitely reject congressionally approved spending was thus removed.{{cite web |url=http://law.onecle.com/constitution/article-2/37-impoundment-of-appropriated-funds.html |title=Impoundment of Appropriated Funds |publisher=Onecle |accessdate=2009-12-24}}
The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 provides that the president may propose rescission of specific funds, but that rescission must be approved by both the House of Representatives and Senate within 45 days. In effect, the requirement removed the impoundment power, since Congress is not required to vote on the rescission and, in fact, has ignored the vast majority of presidential requests.{{cite web|last=General Accounting Office|title=Impoundment Control Act: Use and Impact of Rescission Procedures|url=https://www.gao.gov/pdf/product/123935|publisher=United States General Accounting Office, GAO-10-320T|date=July 30, 1999|accessdate=2022-02-14}}
The Mayor of Washington, D.C. also has impoundment power.District of Columbia Home Rule Act ({{USStatute|93|198|87|777|1973|12|24}})
History
Impoundment is, more generally, the act of detaining something such as animals or personal property due to a legal dispute. In roughly this sense, the President detains funds in the treasury rather than spending them as appropriated. The first use of the power by President Thomas Jefferson involved refusal to spend $50,000 (${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|50000|1803}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) in funds appropriated for the acquisition of gunboats for the United States Navy. He said in 1803 that "[t]he sum of fifty thousand dollars appropriated by Congress for providing gun boats remains unexpended. The favorable and peaceable turn of affairs on the Mississippi rendered an immediate execution of that law unnecessary."{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oi9OAAAAMAAJ&q=%22peaceable+turn+of+affairs+on+the+mississippi+rendered+an+immediate+execution+of+that+law+unnecessary%22&pg=PA14 |title=The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States |publisher=Gales and Seaton |year=1852 |pages=12–14 |accessdate=2007-12-13}} In keeping with his efforts to reduce the size of the debt, he left the funds for the ships unspent for over a year.
Many other presidents have followed Jefferson's example. From time to time, they refused to spend funds when they felt that Congress had appropriated more funds than was necessary.{{Citation needed|reason=There are no exaples given that support this statement except for the Nixon example.|date=February 2025}} However, the impoundment power had limits. For example, in 1972, Richard Nixon attempted to impound funds on an environmental project which he opposed. Congress had previously overridden Nixon's veto of the project. The Supreme Court in Train v. City of New York (1975) ruled that the impoundment power cannot be used to frustrate the will of Congress under such circumstances.
The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 was passed as Congress felt that President Nixon was abusing his authority to impound the funding of programs he opposed. The Act effectively removed the impoundment power of the president and required him to obtain Congressional approval if he wants to rescind specific government spending. President Nixon signed the Act with little protest because the administration was then embroiled in the Watergate scandal and unwilling to provoke Congress.[http://www.urban.org/publications/500171.html Budget Resolution Explainer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526224314/http://www.urban.org/publications/500171.html |date=2010-05-26 }}, Rudolph Penner, Urban Institute
The Line Item Veto Act of 1996 gave the president the power of line-item veto, which President Bill Clinton applied to the federal budget 82 times{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/06/25/scotus.lineitem/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081008092502/http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/06/25/scotus.lineitem/ |archivedate=October 8, 2008 |title=Supreme Court Strikes Down Line-Item Veto |publisher=CNN |date=June 25, 1998}}{{cite web |url=http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/nara004.html |title=History of Line Item Veto Notices |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |access-date=2012-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204040511/http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/nara004.html |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=dead }} before the law was struck down in 1998 by the Supreme Court{{cite web | url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/524/417/ | title=Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998) }} on the grounds of it being in violation of the Presentment Clause of the United States Constitution.
Donald Trump and appointees to his second administration argued the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional, though few legal scholars agree.{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2025/02/02/nx-s1-5281438/understanding-the-law-at-the-heart-of-confusion-over-trumps-federal-funding-freeze |title=Understanding the law at the heart of confusion over Trump's federal funding freeze |date=February 2, 2025 |author=Ayesha Rascoe |publisher=NPR}} Trump's assertion of this power resulted in the 2025 United States federal government grant pause, which was put on hold by a preliminary court injunction before it took effect.
See also
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{citation
|url=https://roybrownell.com/comment-the-unnecessary-demise-of-the-line-item-veto-act/
|format=PDF|title=The Unnecessary Demise of the Line Item Veto Act: The Clinton Administration's Costly Failure to Seek Acknowledgement of "National Security Rescission"
|author=Roy E. Brownell, II
|date=May 1999
|publisher=American University Law Review
|volume=47
|pages=1273–1353
|accessdate=2007-12-13
}}
- {{citation
|url=http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju65012.000/hju65012_0f.htm
|title=Item Veto Constitutional Amendment – Hearing Before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives
|date=March 23, 2000
|publisher=U.S. House of Representatives
|accessdate=2007-12-13
}}
Further reading
- {{cite book|last=Pfiffner|first=James P|title=The President, the Budget, and Congress: Impoundment and the 1974 Budget Act|year=1979|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=0-89158-495-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/presidentbudgetc0000pfif}}
- {{cite book|last=Morgan|first=Iwan|title=The Age of Deficits: Presidents and Unbalanced Budgets from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush|year=2009|publisher=University of Kansas}}
- [http://supreme.justia.com/constitution/article-2/37-impoundment-of-appropriated-funds.html Impoundment of Appropriated Funds] on Justia.com
- [http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/debt/budgetcontrolact.html 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act] on The Bancroft Library
- [http://www.enotes.com/major-acts-congress/congressional-budget-impoundment-control-act Congressional Budget Impoundment Control Act] on enotes.com
- [http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/10/richard-nixon-congressional-budget-control-act-history-000282 So... this is Nixon's Fault?] on Politico.com
Category:Political terminology of the United States