Congress can reclaim its spending and war powers by revising two policies

In one of his latest examples of executive overreach, President Trump cancelled $810 million in congressionally authorized spending, yet again undermining Congress’s power of the purse.

From funding freezes to illegal wars, Trump has repeatedly tried to seize Congress’s constitutional powers throughout this term. The Government Accountability Office pushed back on the recent cancellation. And there are finally signs that Congress is starting to get fed up. Lawmakers from both parties are reportedly discussing how to adjust future spending bills to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

But Congress must go much further in clawing its power back. Lawmakers must learn from congressional history and reassert their authority to check executive abuse, particularly on the power of the purse and war-making.

The framers envisioned Congress as the foundation of the U.S. government, equipping it with the power to decide how taxpayer dollars are spent. While presidents and Congress have always engaged in a push and pull over funding, Trump is trying to burst through the remaining guardrails. 

His approach harkens back to the 1970s, when President Richard Nixon refused to spend billions of dollars of approved congressional spending. In response, Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act, which reinforced its spending power by explicitly requiring the president, in most cases, to spend the funds Congress appropriates.

But presidents have manipulated vague parts of the law to justify funding freezes. In Trump’s second term, his administration has significantly escalated these tactics, gutting funding for independent agencies as well as delaying or withholding hundreds of billions of dollars of congressionally approved........

© The Hill