Republican lawmakers want to repeal a Watergate-era law that reins in the president’s ability to decline to spend funds appropriated by Congress.
WASHINGTON—In a move that could give President Donald Trump more freedom to enact his agenda, Republicans are attempting to repeal a law which ties the hands of presidents who don’t want to spend particular funding appropriated by Congress.
Known as impoundment, the practice of declining to spend funds provided by Congress dates back to President Thomas Jefferson.
Since 1974, however, it has been tempered by the Impoundment Control Act (ICA).
Republicans in the House and Senate now want to repeal the ICA.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) introduced Senate and House versions of their bill striking down the Watergate-era act.
The February legislation comes after House Appropriations Committee Democrats said that some of Trump’s executive orders violate the ICA by calling to delay funding to programs Congress enacted under President Joe Biden.
In an email to The Epoch Times, Clyde said he was hopeful he and his 25 original cosponsors in the House would offer “a strong, unified defense of President Trump’s constitutional impoundment authority.”
Lee told The Epoch Times in an email that the proposed repeal would “help restore the original separation of powers intended by the Founders.”
Defenders of impoundment trace it to Article II of the Constitution, which states the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
Lee described impoundment as “a longstanding presidential authority” used by presidents for more than a century and a half and grounded in the Constitution.”
When it was passed in 1974, the ICA came alongside court decisions bearing on impoundment. All arose as President Richard Nixon sought to avoid spending water pollution funds allocated by Congress and to dismantle the Office of Economic Opportunity created by his predecessor.
Phillip Joyce, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland who has written about the ICA, told The Epoch Times that the law “creates a process by which the president can propose the cancellation of budget authority.”
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Rep. Clyde, Sen. Lee Reintroduce Legislation to Repeal Impoundment Control Act
February 11, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman Andrew Clyde (GA-09) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) reintroduced legislation to repeal the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) of 1974.
“The presidential power to impound funds is key to restoring fiscal sanity to our nation’s capital,” said Congressman Clyde. “For nearly 200 years, every President from George Washington to Richard Nixon possessed the constitutional impoundment authority until the Impoundment Control Act unjustly complicated this power. The devastating consequences of this imprudent law are evident in our dire fiscal crisis. Removing the unconstitutional roadblock that the ICA presents will ensure President Trump has every tool at his disposal to decline wasteful spending, tame our ballooning national debt, and reverse course on our unsustainable economic outlook.”
“The Impoundment Control Act is a Watergate-era relic of misguided overreach,” said Senator Lee. “For nearly two centuries, presidents exercised the authority to impound funds as a critical check on runaway spending. The ICA’s unconstitutional limitations on this power have contributed to a fiscal crisis. Repealing this law will restore the balance of power envisioned by our Constitution and empower the President to reject wasteful, unnecessary spending by administrations that voters resoundingly rejected.”
Bill text is available HERE.
Original cosponsors include (25): Representatives Mark Amodei (NV-02), Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Lauren Boebert (CO-04), Tim Burchett (TN-02), Eric Burlison (MO-07), Ben Cline (VA-06), Eli Crane (AZ-02), Byron Donalds (FL-19), Brandon Gill (TX-26), Paul Gosar (AZ-09), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14), Andy Harris (MD-01), Mark Harris (NC-08), Clay Higgins (LA-03), Wesley Hunt (TX-38), Mary Miller (IL-15), Cory Mills (FL-07), Barry Moore (AL-01), Troy Nehls (TX-22), Chip Roy (TX-21), Keith Self (TX-03), Victoria Spartz (IN-05), Greg Steube (FL-17), Tom Tiffany (WI-07), and Randy Weber (TX-14).
Background
Impoundment is the President’s constitutional power, vested in Article II of the U.S. Constitution, to decline to spend the full amount of funds that Congress appropriates. In other words, congressionally appropriated funds present a ceiling, not a floor. This authority was utilized by Presidents for nearly 200 years for reasons ranging from efficiency to foreign affairs.
At the height of the Watergate scandal, Congress unnecessarily and unlawfully complicated the presidential power of impoundment with passage of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The ICA is unconstitutional, as it violates the President’s Article II authority.
With a ballooning national debt, an out-of-control deficit, soaring interest payments, and crushing inflation, returning fiscal sanity is central to getting our country and our economy back on track. The President’s constitutional power of impoundment is essential to carrying out this mission for the American people.
