This analysis reviews actions under the Impoundment Control Act by the Trump administration, suggesting implications for executive power and the budget process.
The Trump administration, as part of its effort to expand executive control, has aggressively pursued impoundment power. Impoundments, have largely been narrowly proscribed since the passage of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, but this renewed effort has put the issue front and center once again. This paper reviews the historical record on impoundment, presents the arguments for and against the President's constitutional authority to impound, reviews the Trump administration actions and the questions raised by them, and suggests the implications for future relationships between the President and Congress in the budget process, and for the separation of powers itself.
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Philip Joyce (2025) studied this question.
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