© 2025 WRVO Public Media
NPR News for Central New York
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Can the president override Congress on spending?

By Sarah Gonzalez,
Meg Cramer, Willa Rubin
Published February 20, 2025 at 8:48 AM EST
A worker removes the U.S. Agency for International Development sign on their headquarters on February 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) abruptly shutdown the U.S. aid agency earlier this week leaving thousands unemployed and putting U.S. foreign diplomacy and aid programs in limbo.
Kayla Bartkowski
/
Getty Images
A worker removes the U.S. Agency for International Development sign on their headquarters on February 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) abruptly shutdown the U.S. aid agency earlier this week leaving thousands unemployed and putting U.S. foreign diplomacy and aid programs in limbo.

So the president can't spend more money than Congress has agreed and voted to spend. But can the president spend less money than Congress wants?

It all comes down to something called "impoundment" and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which controls when and how a president can take away money Congress has appropriated.

President Trump followed the Impoundment Control Act rules back in 2018. But now, in his second term, he's saying he thinks that law is unconstitutional.

On this episode: the history of impoundment, from Thomas Jefferson to Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. And what constitutional scholars and judges are saying after Trump attempted to dismantle a federal agency and freeze trillions in federal funding that goes to states for everything from new school buses to public health research.

We've got more about impoundment in the latest Planet Money newsletter

.

Check out The Indicator's episodes on

the gutting of USAID and how American farmers are affected in USAID cuts. And, our previous episode on the big government money pipe

that's being closely watched right now.

This episode was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Meg Cramer. It was fact-checked by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. Engineering by Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is

Planet Money's executive producer.

Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.

Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Music: Universal Music Production, "Hi-Tech Expert," "Black Excellence," and "Walk The Dream."

Copyright 2025 NPR

Tags
NPR Podcasts
Sarah Gonzalez
Sarah Gonzalez is a host and reporter with Planet Money, NPR's award-winning podcast that finds creative, entertaining ways to make sense of the big, complicated forces that move our economy. She joined the team in April 2018.
Meg Cramer
Meg Cramer is a freelance audio journalist who also teaches at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. She was a reporter and executive producer on the award-winning Trump, Inc. podcast — a collaborative investigation between WNYC and ProPublica. More recently, she edited three series of LAist Studios' flagship podcast Imperfect Paradise and was a Senior Supervising Editor for NPR's Planet Money.
Willa Rubin
Willa Rubin is an associate producer at Planet Money, and she likes telling stories that explore how the economy impacts everyday people. Before joining Planet Money, she helped launch and co-produced Gimlet Media and the Wall Street Journal's podcast "The Journal," a daily news show which has won awards from the New York Press Club and from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. She previously interned at The Indicator from Planet Money. She has a master's degree in journalism from the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY and studied politics at Oberlin College. She's a lifelong New Yorker and loves cats.