Impoundment violation

Trump administration slapped with ‘impoundment’ violation for freezing library, museum funding

The Government Accountability Office’s conclusion follows a similar finding last month for a different pot of cash.

Jennifer Scholtes

For the second time this year, the federal government’s top watchdog concluded Monday that the Trump administration violated the law by withholding funding Congress already approved.

This time, the Government Accountability Office found the Trump administration flouted the law by clawing back federal cash Congress enacted to support libraries, archives and museums throughout the country. By freezing money that’s supposed to flow through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Trump administration violated the 51-year-old law barring presidents from withholding federal dollars without approval from Congress, the watchdog concluded.

Following the release of the GAO’s verdict, the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, said in a statement that President Donald Trump “may not like the fact that Congress has, on a bipartisan basis, invested in helping kids learn at their local library — but that does not change the fact that he himself signed these investments into law, and they need to start flowing immediately.”

The decision follows GAO’s conclusion last month that the Department of Transportation violated the law by withholding funds meant to build charging stations throughout the U.S. for electric vehicles — a $5 billion initiative created under the bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021.

The federal watchdog is expected to issue similar conclusions in the coming months as it pursues at least 39 investigations into whether the Trump administration violated the Impoundment Control Act, and those findings are likely to influence court cases throughout the country challenging the Trump administration’s freezing and cancellation of billions of dollars already signed into law.

As GAO weighs in on the legality of the administration’s funding moves, Trump, his top aides and Republicans in Congress have been publicly disparaging the independent, nonpartisan watchdog.