The Trump Administration is refusing to spend congressionally mandated funds, a violation of a 1974 budget law, federal officials told The Washington Post.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has charged that funds have been illegally withheld, though White House aides claim the law is unconstitutional and will seek court rulings to overturn it, the Post said. The White House has denied any funds have been illegally cancelled.
The Trump administration is planning to "defer" 200 separate accounts across the federal government, affecting billions of dollars at various agencies, according to the Post. Cost cutting includes rejecting all contracts over $250,000 at the Army Corps of Engineers and rejecting agencies' requests for facilities repairs through the General Service Administration.
The cost cutting has hit organizations like the National Science Foundation, which has terminated 1,700 grants in the last few weeks and has awarded half as many grants as it did in the same period in 2024, the Post reported. The agency has only received $6.5 billion of the congressionally approved $9 billion to spend on research, an employee told the Post.
At the National Institute of Health, the agency will end the fiscal year with unspent funds, the Post reported. NIH director Jay Bhattacharya defended the spending cuts in a letter obtained by the Post.
"My job is to make sure that the NIH spends the money that the American people have entrusted us with on projects that advance the health and longevity of the American people," Bhattacharya said.
Employees at the General Service Administration have been told that only requests for work projects that serve one of three goals — Trump's return-to-office plans, "safety/emergency" or "national security" — are allowed to go forward, the Post said.
The GAO has opened more than three dozen inquiries into potential White House violations of federal budget law. House Republicans recently unveiled a proposal that would cut the GAO's budget and prevent it from suing the federal government over canceled appropriations, the Post reported.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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