‘Constitutional crisis’: The Impoundment Control Act takes center stage amid Russell Vought’s confirmation

A power struggle concerning government spending is heating up in Washington, D.C., igniting what some Senate Democrats call a "constitutional crisis" amid the Trump administration’s efforts to curb government waste. 

The conflict stems from President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell Vought, and was exacerbated when the Trump administration announced it would freeze federal grants and loans on Jan. 27 in an OMB memo. 

Both Trump and Vought share a common point of contention: the Impoundment Control Act. 

The 1974 law, which Trump and Vought both argue is unconstitutional, reasserts Congress' power of the purse and bars the executive branch from unilaterally side-stepping Congress and withholding appropriated funds. 

However, many legal experts warn that the matter is not up for debate, and the courts are clear; it is unconstitutional for the executive branch to divert dollars Congress has authorized. 

The Senate voted to confirm Vought on Thursday by a 53–47 margin along party lines, following a 30-hour delay from Democrats in protest against his nomination. 

Republicans claim that Vought is qualified to lead the department because he previously served in that role during Trump’s first term. Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday that Vought would "be able to hit the ground running."

However, Democrats remained staunchly opposed to Vought's nomination and claimed his views on impoundment disqualified him from the role, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., arguing on Wednesday that Trump and Vought believe "they may be above the law." 

However, what is the Impoundment Control Act? Here is a look at what's up for debate regarding government spending — and what changes could emerge during the Trump administration. 

Article I of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the authority to manage the federal budget to determine funding decisions to balance power between the branches of government. 

However, the act of impoundment occurs when the executive branch chooses to not spend these approved dollars from Congress, since the executive branch and the Office of Budget and Management do oversee the actual spending of the approved funds. 

Should a president want to spend less than what Congress has budgeted, the executive branch must secure approval from Congress. Deferring funds also requires the executive branch to inform Congress. 

As a result, Congress passed the 1974 Impoundment Control Act to establish these proper channels of congressional oversight if a president chooses to withhold or defer these funds. 

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Vought’s opponents voiced concern that his leadership would lead to more cases like the freeze of federal grants and loans disclosed in an OMB memo on Jan. 27, a move that Democrats say was illegal and violated the Impoundment Control Act. 

"As much as Trump desires it, the president is not a king," Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told reporters on Jan. 28. "As much as Trump desires it, a law is not a suggestion."

"These are not questions of opinion," Merkley said. "These are principles at the heart of our constitutional system. It's at the heart of our checks and balances, and thus we have a constitutional crisis."

Vought repeatedly defended his stance that the Impoundment Control Act was unconstitutional in multiple confirmation hearings and claimed that presidents historically could spend less than what Congress had earmarked prior to 1974. 

Proponents of executive impoundment frequently point to Thomas Jefferson’s administration in 1803, when Congress appropriated funding for 15 gunboats. However, Jefferson held off on purchasing the boats to not aggravate France amid delicate discussions between then-Secretary of State James Madison and Napoleon. The purchase of the boats eventually became unnecessary following the Louisiana Purchase. 

Additionally, Vought’s Center for Renewing America, a nonprofit Vought founded in 2021, has said impoundment allows the executive branch to exert fiscal discipline and that the president has the authority to determine if funds are used in the most efficient manner. 

Vought did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

However, according to multiple legal experts, the Constitution and the courts are clear that spending appropriations fall under the parameters of the legislative branch. 

Michael McConnell, director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, told Fox News Digital, "The president has the constitutional obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and that includes spending.

"So I don't know where Mr. Vought gets the view that somehow the president has the right to decide what the government is going to spend money on," he said. "This is Congress' job."

Despite Trump and Vought’s views that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional, McConnell said that he believed there is "no reasonable prospect that the court is going to agree with that.

"The person who would have been the recipient of the funding will have some standing to sue," McConnell said. "So, I would assume that if there's an impoundment, there will be an immediate lawsuit under the Impoundment Control Act." 

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Other legal experts agreed that should the Trump administration attempt to withhold funds, the courts would step in and assert that there is no legal basis to do so. 

That is because this is not a murky legal issue, according to Georgetown Law professor Stephen Vladeck. 

"There are contested issues of constitutional law, but this just isn't one of them," Vladeck told Fox News Digital. "Were it otherwise, there wouldn't be much point in having a legislative branch."

Legal experts claim the courts historically have upheld the constitutionality of the Impoundment Control Act, and point to the 1975 case Train v. City of New York. In that case, the Supreme Court determined the Environmental Protection Agency must use full funding included in the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, even though then-President Richard Nixon issued orders not to use all the funding.

Vought himself admitted in a Jan. 22 confirmation hearing that no court of law has found the Impoundment Control Act unconstitutional. 

The courts did step into action following the recent OMB memo outlining a pause in federal grants and loans, and two federal judges have temporarily blocked the freeze. 

Although the White House did rescind the memo pausing the federal aid on Jan. 29, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the move did not equate to a "rescission of the federal funding freeze." 

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on Vought's nomination and comments from Democrats that the memo was "illegal." 

The memo did not appear to alarm Republican leadership in Congress, who publicly characterized the pause as standard protocol during an administrative turnover. 

"I think that's a normal practice at the beginning of administration, until they have an opportunity to review how the money is being spent," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Jan. 27. "We'll see kind of what the extent of it is, and … what they intend to do in a more fulsome way. But for now, I think it's just, it's just kind of a preliminary step that I think most administrations take," Thune said. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also told reporters on Jan. 27 the memo did not concern him and that he "fully" supported it, labeling the directive a "common application of common sense."

Even so, the memo further intensified opposition to Vought’s nomination. Specifically, Democrats urged the entire Senate to reject Vought’s nomination on Jan. 30 in response, following a committee vote advancing his nomination to the Senate floor. 

Merkely noted that Vought oversaw the OMB in 2019 when the office held up $214 million in military aid for Ukraine — an issue that emerged as a key point in Trump’s first impeachment. Ultimately, the Government Accountability Office determined in 2020 the move did violate the Impoundment Control Act, ahead of Trump's Senate impeachment trial. The Senate ultimately voted to acquit Trump.

Therefore, Merkley characterized Vought as "dangerously unfit" to lead OMB and a "dangerous threat to our constitutional system of representative democracy." 

Josh Chafetz, a professor at Georgetown Law, said such language such as "constitutional crisis" is reasonable considering Congress’s spending power is one of the few but critical ways the legislative branch ensures the executive branch doesn’t exert too much power. 

"These kinds of impoundments are not just unconstitutional, but they're actually anti-constitutional," Chafetz told Fox News Digital. "They strike at the very foundation of our constitutional order."

Democrats also don’t believe the recent memo is an isolated incident. Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. cautioned on Jan. 30 that Vought would seek to withhold funds again overseeing OMB — if the Senate confirms him. 

Vought himself signaled the Trump administration could initiate reform on impoundment law. In a confirmation hearing on Jan. 22, Vought told lawmakers that while an exact strategy is not intact yet, the Trump administration plans to complete a review with the Justice Department to explore the "parameters of the law with regard to the Impoundment Control Act," should the Senate confirm him.

Vought also noted that some lawmakers who agree with his position on impoundment have proposed legislation on the matter. For example, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced legislation in December 2024 to repeal the Impoundment Control Act, arguing that the law’s "unconstitutional limitations" on the executive branch have "contributed to a fiscal crisis." 

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While many legal experts agree the legislative branch is the proper channel for reforming the Impoundment Control Act, Chafetz doubts there is an appetite to do so and that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle would ultimately view such attempts as an "attack on their institution."  

As a result, Vladeck said that the Trump administration only has two means to navigate the Impoundment Control Act: either adhere to it or modify it. 

"As for what we can expect going forward, it's entirely possible that the administration will try to push the envelope," Vladeck said. "But the onus ought to be on the administration to follow the procedure Congress and the president agreed to in 1974 — or to make the case for why he shouldn't have to." 

Glenn Youngkin ‘personally invites’ new Trump admin to settle in Virginia over Maryland and DC

EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin will release a video ad Tuesday inviting the countless new workers and officials in the second Trump administration to settle in his state, versus the District of Columbia and neighboring Maryland.

Youngkin, who made education policy a pillar of his 2021 campaign against ex-Gov. Terence McAuliffe amid several school controversies in Northern Virginia, said the commonwealth has better schools than its neighbors.

Youngkin cited a CNBC study ranking Virginia first in the U.S. in education, and first in the nation overall for business – displacing its neighbor in 2023, first-place North Carolina.

"To the new members of President Trump's administration moving to the area, I want to personally invite you to make Virginia your home," Youngkin said.

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"Virginia is right across the Potomac. We offer a great quality of life, safe communities, award-winning schools where parents matter, and lower taxes than D.C. or Maryland."

Maryland was listed 31st in best-for-business, and the District of Columbia was unranked, according to the study.

The ad flashed through several scenes in the Old Dominion, from the capital, Richmond, to the King Street Trolley slinking through Old Town Alexandria. 

"It's why so many people choose Virginia as the best place to live, work and raise a family," Youngkin said.

Youngkin has called education the "bedrock of attaining the American dream," and the CNBC study credited both Youngkin and the Democratic state legislative majority for compromising on $2.5 billion in new K-12 funding and 3% raises for teachers.

When asked about Virginia being pitched as a new home for the new administration, Trump transition team spokesman Brian Hughes said Youngkin's performance speaks for itself as its own advertisement.

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"With the amazing job Governor Youngkin has done bringing common sense, low taxes, and high quality of life to his state, it's no wonder that he has a compelling case to make to people who are exploring next steps in the region." Hughes said.

Youngkin was swept into office in 2021 after a major political upset of McAuliffe – as Republicans had been out of power in Richmond for about a decade.

The last Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, reappeared on the political scene during President-elect Donald Trump's various legal trials, as he, too, had been subject to prosecution by now-special counsel Jack Smith.

In McDonnell's case, the once-rumored 2012 running-mate candidate's political future imploded during his own corruption litigation, but the Supreme Court later unanimously threw out Smith's conviction. Now-Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, ultimately chose then-Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. to run with him that cycle.

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With Virginia being the rare state that does not allow its governor to run for consecutive terms, Youngkin's deputy, Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, has launched a 2025 gubernatorial campaign she said seeks to build on the Youngkin-Sears record.

The prominent Democrat in the upcoming contest thus far is Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who gave up her seat in launching her bid. Spanberger will be replaced in Congress by Rep-elect Yevgeny "Eugene" Vindman, D-Va., – the twin brother of Trump impeachment witness Col. Alexander Vindman.

Trump considers New York Rep Brandon Williams for possible Labor Secretary nomination

Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., is on a short list of contenders being considered for the nomination of Labor Secretary under President-elect Donald Trump's new administration. 

Williams, who represents central New York, was viewed as one of the most vulnerable House Republican incumbents this election cycle because state Democratic leaders redrew his district to make it more favorable to their party. He was defeated by Democratic state Sen. John Mannion last week, but a source close to the president-elect's transition team confirmed to Fox News Digital that Williams is now under consideration to join Trump's Cabinet. 

"Brandon Williams was an exceptional member of congress who jumped into the race two years ago to challenge John Katko after he voted to impeach President Trump," the source told Fox News Digital. "He’s a Navy veteran who served as an officer on a nuclear submarine, is a businessman and tech entrepreneur, was a political outsider, and will advance President Trump’s mission." 

Citing sources, the New York Post was first to report about Williams' consideration for Labor secretary, revealing he is on the "short version of the short list" and high-level conversations were happening on the matter Friday, days after the election. 

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Williams serves on three House committees: Transportation and Infrastructure; Science, Space, and Technology; and Education and the Workforce. He is also a member of several caucuses, including the Republican Main Street Caucus, which focuses on "implementing pro-growth policies for small business owners, fostering economic and individual prosperity, and delivering real results for the American people," according to its website.

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Politico had reported on Tuesday that Williams is among names being "floated" for a position in the Trump administration, but the outlet did not specify Tuesday what that executive branch job could be. 

Politico reported two other possible contenders for Labor secretary: Patrick Pizzella, a former U.S. deputy Labor secretary, and Bryan Slater, the state Labor secretary under Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. 

Trump has already selected two high-profile New Yorkers to join his Cabinet. 

House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, who was elected to a sixth term last week, will be pulled from Congress to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who nearly ousted Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in a competitive, but unsuccessful, 2022 bid to run the Empire State, has been campaigning on behalf of Trump and was selected to join the cabinet as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Media meltdown: Why journalism is battered and bleeding

Let’s start with the good news.

With a flick of a finger, more information is instantaneously available than at any time in human history. Stories, columns, opinions, video, photos, music, movies, texts, social media, streaming, podcasts. There are more ways to consume–desktop, phone, tablet, smartwatch–and infinitely more ways to voice your views.

Okay, enough of that.

The news business is in a tailspin. Firings and layoffs and buyouts are decimating its ranks. Publications and websites are folding. Revenue is plunging. Credibility is at an all-time low. And AI is starting to gobble up jobs.

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Worst of all, after the pandemic, scandals and impeachments, economic anxiety and political gridlock, interest in news is declining.

In L.A. they’re always worried about the Big One. For media people it feels like the earthquake has already struck.

The billionaire owner of the once-mighty Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, has fired the editor and more than 20 percent of its staff, devastating the Washington bureau and several key units. The billionaire owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, has given buyouts to 240 staffers, decimating the metro staff and losing many of the paper’s biggest names.

If newspapers aren’t owned by these wealthy moguls, they’re increasingly controlled by hedge funds whose strip-mining tactics have reduced them to a skeleton of their former selves.

From Vice to Vox, from Time (15 percent laid off) to Business Insider (8 percent), from Sports Illustrated (blown up) to BuzzFeed News (shuttered), the carnage is everywhere.

And just yesterday, the Messenger, a news and aggregation site launched by Jimmy Finkelstein, former owner of the Hill, shut down after less than a year, having lost $38 million and some staffers lured from top publications.

CNN just had a major round of layoffs. Cable news audiences are aging, and cord-cutting is growing in popularity. 

It’s not just that the voracious Internet broke the business model; that happened a quarter-century ago. It’s that there seems to be no end in sight. 

"Journalists across the country burst into flames of panic this week, as bad news for the news business crested and erupted everywhere all at once," writes Jack Shafer in Politico.

The impact is greatest on local reporting, with far fewer folks to check up on their city halls and statehouses, especially in smaller markets.

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"No matter how many heroic nonprofit newsrooms like the Baltimore Banner and Daily Memphian take root, no matter how many Substack-like newsletters blossom or creators emerge to drop their videos on YouTube, you can’t deny the journalism business’ decline," Shafer writes.

What’s remarkable to me is how many of these pieces, and there have been many, overlook the importance of political bias. Republicans have been complaining about a liberal tilt since I began to read newspapers. Now, in the Trump era, half the country believes the media have become the opposition party, determined to block their man from returning to the White House. But during the Biden presidency, a growing percentage of those on the left have lost trust in the business as well.

You have Red and Blue America, each filled with anger, each side viewing the other as evil and dangerous, with the press having forfeited its standing as a neutral arbiter of facts. 

"What makes this so unnerving," says the Atlantic, "is the fact that the meltdown has come amid—and in seeming defiance of—a generally booming economy. The ranks of professional journalists keep declining even as overall unemployment stays low, incomes rise, and the stock market reaches new heights." 

The author, Paul Farhi, a longtime media reporter for the Washington Post, just took the paper’s buyout.

"What’s more, a presidential-election cycle tends to produce a surge of readers, viewers, and advertisers as people pay closer attention to the news. Not this time, at least so far."

Beyond news fatigue, Farhi notes, "Facebook has steadily reduced the amount of news that users see in their feed, wiping out a major source of traffic." I’d add that Google has gobbled some of that revenue as well.

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There are obviously exceptions. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe are strong franchises. Fox News exceeds the prime-time ratings of CNN and MSNBC combined. But even television networks feel compelled to pour money into online shows and pay sites.

"Will journalism become a hobby like scrapbooking or street busking, done on the cheap or for donations, but one without much of a career path?" Politico asks.

I’m more pessimistic than I’ve ever been, and there’s no easy solution. Some say government subsidies are needed, but that raises serious conflict questions. And if zillionaires can’t revive newspapers and magazines, what hope is there for ordinary companies and local owners?

I do think that just as television didn’t wipe out radio, journalism will have to morph into new and more compelling forms to survive. Who would have thought even three years ago that everyone and their brother-in-law would have a podcast?

But people are willing to pay monthly fees for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV and the like, though they are going through a belt-tightening wave as well, with Spotify having just axed 17 percent of its staff. 

If news outlets can’t convince most of the public that their product is worth buying, they bear the ultimate blame.

Biden suggests Republicans will impeach him because inflation is down

President Biden on Friday suggested that Republicans will impeach him because inflation has come down so much that his opponents can no longer attack the Biden economy.

The president made those remarks in Auburn, Maine, where he delivered a stump speech arguing that "Bidenomics" is strengthening the middle class, creating jobs and bringing inflation down. 

"In fact, we have the lowest rate of inflation among the world's major economies," Biden said. "While there's more work to do, earlier this week the Washington Post suggested that Republicans may have to find something else to criticize me for, now that inflation is coming down. 

"Maybe they'll decide to impeach me because it's coming down, I don't know," Biden said. "I love that one. Anyway, that's another story."

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House Republicans have floated launching an impeachment inquiry against Biden amid newly surfaced allegations that suggest his involvement in the business dealings his son, Hunter. Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has led House Oversight Committee investigations into the Biden family's allegedly corrupt business dealings for months, seeking evidence that Biden used his former office of vice president as leverage to enrich the family. 

The president has fallen directly at the center of that investigation in recent weeks as an unclassified FBI document — an FD-1023 form — was released, containing allegations that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden "coerced" the CEO of Burisma Holdings to pay them millions of dollars in exchange for their help in getting the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company fired.

That FD-1023 form is part of an ongoing federal investigation, law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital.

Biden's comments in Maine point to his strategy for a potential impeachment inquiry — to delegitimize the investigations as a last-ditch political effort by Republicans, who he will claim have run out of substantive issues to discuss ahead of the next election. 

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Biden's case for re-election in 2024 rests on recent low unemployment numbers and GDP growth that he argues are the direct result of his policies. "Bidenomics" is the president's catch-all term for increased government spending, higher taxes on the wealthy and subsidies for the clean energy industry he claims will stimulate growth and create jobs. Bolstered by a strong economic report that showed GDP growth beat expectations and rose 2.4% in the second quarter of 2023, the president took credit for an improving economy.

"Yesterday, we learned the economy grew faster than expected last quarter. And this morning, we saw data showing that last month the annual rate of inflation continued to decline," Biden said Thursday. "So, inflation is now at its lowest point in two years, and wages are up after being adjusted for inflation." 

The president boasted that 13 million new jobs have been created since he assumed office, including 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. He noted that unemployment has been below 4% for the longest stretch in over 50 years, and declared that all jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic have now been recovered with higher pay and more job satisfaction. 

"I'm not here to declare victory on the economy. We have more work to do. We have a plan for turning things around," Biden said. "Bidenomics is just another way of saying restoring the American dream."

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While recent economic indicators suggest the economy is improving, and fears of an imminent recession are fading, public opinion polling continues to indicate that Americans are giving Biden little credit. The president’s approval ratings on the economy remain deeply underwater in most surveys.

A Fox News national poll conducted last month indicated that most voters were unhappy with how things are going in the country and continued to rate economic conditions negatively. In addition, few voters believe they are gaining financial ground, according to the survey.

Fox News' Brooke Singman and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.