Even Republicans want accountability for Trump admin’s shady money moves

Republicans are growing increasingly angry with President Donald Trump's administration officials who continue to refuse to deliver on funds that Congress appropriated.

Democrats have long complained about it, but now Republicans are getting involved, too. The U.S. Constitution states that the legislative branch (the House and Senate) allocates funding. They pass a budget for the government, programs, the military, Medicare and all of the other things that keeps the country operational. The Trump administration has taken that money, and if officials don't like it, they don't send it out.

Lawmakers are now asking the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to sue the administration for refusing to release approved spending and canceling funding, Politico reported Friday.

The GAO has repeatedly claimed that the administration violated federal law. In fact, this week it concluded that the Trump administration illegally withheld more than $1 billion for education and health care research programs. The problem is that the GAO doesn't have a permanent director. Only an interim director is in charge until the Senate can confirm someone. Thus far, that interim director has not exercised the GAO's authority to take the administration to court.

“They are empowered to sue,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has been among the Republicans angry about the administration's move. She chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“I think the biggest problem is that we have an acting director of the GAO, who understandably is wary of suing the administration without direct congressional approval," Collins added.

With the Nov. 3 election in the next 25 days, and the House expected to change hands, they could sue the administration for violating the law. The Republican-led House sued President Barack Obama's administration in July 2014 over Obamacare spending. In Sept. 2020, the Democratic-led House sued the Trump administration over border wall funding that Congress never appropriated.

Trump also recently canceled $810 million in approved spending. The fiscal year ended Sept. 30, and if programs didn't use the money, it expired. There is a question about Trump using government funding to run TV ads promoting himself. He's also being questioned about the $352 million he took from the Secret Service budget to build his ballroom.

Politico cited a recent report from The Washington Sun, which said on Thursday that Trump officials were thinking of nominating Eric Ueland, who currently serves in the White House budget office. The Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought is the official, who, under Trump's authority, "has used every lever he can reach to stanch the flow of federal dollars," wrote one columnist.

A series of August reports cited a group of what they're calling "zombie programs" across the U.S. government. Those are programs like the CDC's Alzheimer’s disease program or programs around epilepsy and sickle cell disease data collection operations. There's even a rape prevention unit. Congress has approved and fully funded all of them. When Elon Musk went through his DOGE cuts, the people who worked on the programs were let go.

Vought has encouraged the president to impound money that Congress has allocated, even if it's against the law. In fact, Brown cited "a law specifically forbidding the practice."

Republicans allege that Trump is using “pocket rescissions” tactics.

"I’m very disappointed in their action here, and it will have to be rectified,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “I’m not sure who should do it. All I know is I want a different result than what we have right now.”

Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who left at the end of his 15-year term, said “the law is very clear that GAO’s ability to sue doesn’t preclude anybody else from suing.”