“Impounded in the Congressional Purse by A Constitutional Crisis”
In 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was only four years old, the product of Nixon’s first administration, and initiatives such as the Clean Air Act, the creation of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), and the requirement of environmental impact studies for projects were still ramping up. However, the president had vetoed the 1972 Clean Water Act (based on its cost, not the idea of regulating water standards itself). The veto was overridden, but rather than allow disbursement of the funds, Nixon impounded them, refusing to release the money. The impoundment was seen as a violation of the Congressional “power of the purse,” one granted to Congress by Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution.
The City of New York, with the City of Detroit and other municipalities, brought suit against the head of the EPA, Russell Train, who complied with Nixon’s demand to withhold funding. The US Court of Appeals found in favor of the cities, a decision then appealed by the EPA. While the case was being heard and decided, Congress had already begun the process of budget reform, including the prevention of impoundment of already appropriated funds (a power explicitly accorded to Congress in the Constitution.) The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 created the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and defined the process by which a president could request rescission of funding.
Because the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) was signed into law after the Train case was heard, the US Supreme Court didn’t use or review it when making its decision. They instead based their decision on the language of the Clean Water Act itself, upholding the Court of Appeals decision requiring the full disbursement of the funds. What may not have been envisioned by either the Supreme Court, or the legislators who wrote the ICA, was a president who would simply act without regard to either constitutional or congressional standing law.
Quid Pro Quo
The first violation of the ICA occurred during the first Trump Administration.
In 2019, US President Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was only two months into his first term and fighting an already years-long Russian invasion of the Donbas region. During the phone call, Trump requested that Zelenskyy investigate former Vice President Joseph Biden and his son Hunter to find information that might be used against them during his re-election campaign. Subsequent actions by Trump included withholding already allocated defense funds from Ukraine to encourage Zelenskyy to act. This was an impoundment under the 1974 ICA, and it led to the resignation of two OMB staff concerned about the funding block. Ultimately, the news of Trump’s “quid pro quo” requests, and the stop on funding, resulted in a Congressional investigation and the first impeachment of the administration.