impoundment

It is unclear whether the Supreme Court will give in to the president’s fringe interpretation, though the court recently narrowly ruled against the Trump administration’s illegal impoundment of $2 billion in Congressionally approved foreign aid.

Musk, though he stands to be further empowered by either a shutdown or further impoundment, has expressed support for a shutdown, potentially for this reason.

Philip Wallach, a senior fellow focusing on Congress and the separation of powers at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, told Salon that he is also concerned about impoundment.

While impoundment is regulated by the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and the Supreme Court has found, in the 1975 case Train v.

“For 200 years, under our system of government, it was undisputed that the president had the constitutional power to stop unnecessary spending through what is known as impoundment,” he claimed in 2023.