Trump Administration Illegally Withheld Science Funding, Watchdog Finds

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s administration illegally withheld $8 billion in funding to the National Institutes of Health, blocking critical medical research and threatening thousands of jobs nationwide, according to a congressional watchdog agency.

The decision by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan agency, follows similar findings of the White House’s illegal impoundment of spending previously approved by Congress, including funds for electric vehicle charging, museums and libraries, Head Start and K-12 schools.

It’s also the latest example of how the Trump administration is trampling on Congress’s constitutional power over the purse. In this case, the White House has been found in violation of the Impoundment Control Act, which restricts the president’s ability to withhold appropriated funds from being spent by the executive branch. The law was passed in 1974 in response to President Richard Nixon’s attempts to impound funds for programs he didn’t like.

“NIH has offered no evidence that it did not withhold amounts from obligation or expenditure, and it has not shown that the delay was a permissible programmatic one,” the GAO said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Therefore, we conclude that NIH withheld budget authority from obligation or expenditure in violation of the ICA... If the executive branch wishes to make changes to the appropriation provided to NIH, it must propose funds for rescission or otherwise propose legislation to make changes to the law for consideration by Congress,” the watchdog added.

The findings underscored the stakes of a battle that has occupied much of Washington since Trump’s inauguration in January. Democrats are incensed by what they see as an illegal power grab by the White House, one that, according to their tally, has blocked at least $425 billion in funding owed to the American people.

“Over the last six months, President Trump and his administration have done just about everything they can to wreck our nation’s medical research system, and they have dangerously set back our efforts to cure cancer, Alzheimer’s, and so much else,” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Cutting off investments Congress has made into research that saves millions of lives is as backward and as inexcusable as it gets.”

It’s not just Democrats who are crying foul about the Trump administration’s decision to freeze funds approved by Congress. Last month, they were joined by 13 Republican senators who pressed the White House to release roughly $15 billion in other NIH funding aimed at fighting cancer, cardiovascular disease, and rare pediatric disorders. Republican senators also successfully pushed the administration to release billions of dollars in frozen education funding.

The clash over spending is likely to come to a head next month. Lawmakers must fund the government for the next fiscal year by Sept. 30, and they have vastly different preferences on how to spend taxpayer dollars. Republicans in the House and the Senate are not on the same page, while the White House is pushing for sharp reductions in spending that Democrats have called a nonstarter.

For the moment, at least, the GAO findings are little more than slaps on the wrist for an administration bent on going around the law. The agency has the power to sue the administration, but it is not currently planning to do so.

But that didn’t stop Democrats from criticizing the White House and urging their GOP colleagues to join them in calling for the release of more funding.

“Donald Trump is not a king, and the laws of our land are not suggestions,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said in a statement on Tuesday. “Congressional Republicans need to stop placating the administration and start holding Trump and his administration accountable for not following the law.”