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1 1 (May 2, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/cnladecvrls0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ______ *.Research Service ~~~ i~~nforming the legislative debate since 1914 __________________ Congressional and Executive Roles in Spending: Legal Frameworks May 2, 2025 President Donald Trump has made federal spending decisions a centerpiece of his second Administration. On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued the first group in a series of executive orders that seek to align past and future federal spending decisions with the Administration's policy priorities. The executive orders address policy issues that cross agency lines, such as energy policy; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and gender ideology. A later executive order directs all agencies to review certain contracts and grants with a view toward reducing overall federal spending or reallocating funds to promote efficiencies and advance government priorities. Other executive orders seek to scale back or eliminate certain entities that receive appropriated funds. President Trump's spending-related actions have not been limited to domestic programs. He has ordered a reevaluation of foreign assistance generally and of contributions to international intergovernmental organizations in particular. Federal agencies have taken further actions to implement the executive orders, ranging from a since- rescinded government-wide freeze on most forms of federal financial assistance, to department-wide reviews of selected grant projects, to grant terminations in particular grant programs. Grant recipients affected by certain executive actions have sought to challenge them in litigation. This Legal Sidebar, the first in a two-part series, seeks to contextualize these recent executive branch spending-related actions by discussing the powers of Congress and of the Executive, respectively, in making and carrying out the spending decisions reflected in federal law. This Sidebar begins by describing the scope of Congress's power of the purse, including the substantive and procedural limitations of that power. The Sidebar then examines the executive role in using appropriations. A companion Sidebar discusses selected litigation challenging recent executive actions affecting domestic and foreign spending. Congress's Role: Power Congress is often described as wielding the power of the purse, or the ability to decide how public money may be spent. This power stems from the Constitution's positive grants of legislative power to Congress, many of which appear in Article I, § 8. Some of these grants of spending authority are part and parcel of an enumerated power to legislate on particular subject matter. For example, Congress has the power to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, and to establish post offices and post Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB11302 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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