To find out if President Trump and his senior aides have unlawfully withheld billions of dollars in congressionally sanctioned funds, a federal watchdog has launched dozens of investigations.
In an effort to give Mr. Trump more authority over the country’s budget, Republican lawmakers are now collaborating with the White House to thwart those investigations and the bureaucrats who are carrying them out.
The Government Accountability Office, an organization that was established about a century ago to assist Congress in monitoring federal spending, is the target of the attacks. The main focus of the legislative office’s thorough studies is how Washington may save money, which occasionally irritates administrations who are not too fond of its claims of waste.
The power of the purse, however, has recently put oversight officials in a direct and very unusual conflict with the White House. The watchdog primarily upholds a provision from the 1970s that forbids the president from disobeying legislative spending directives. Mr. Trump has worked quickly to dissolve entire departments and programs without the consent of lawmakers in an attempt to test that rule since taking office.
In recent months, the G.A.O. has twice found that Mr. Trump’s actions were against the regulations that forbid him from impounding funds, or unilaterally terminating them. This Monday, the government acknowledged that it has 46 ongoing investigations involving additional claims that Mr. Trump unlawfully kept payments.
According to June internal documents seen by The New York Times, the investigations focus on how the White House has handled international aid, particularly monies for Ukraine, and climate investments, including funds for wind energy and clean school buses. According to the records, the administration’s handling of funds for education and public health, including those for the National Institutes of Health and the Head Start child care program, is also under investigation.
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