Constitutional Softball: Congress Gives Up Its Power of the Purse [View all]

[Celerity]

Today on TAP: After the shutdown deal, Trump has gone right back to withholding funds and dismantling appropriated entities.

https://prospect.org/2025/12/17/constitutional-softball-congress-gives-up-power-of-the-purse/


A runner jogs past the U.S. Capitol shortly after sunrise, December 16, 2025, in Washington. Credit: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo

The $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which has now passed the House and Senate, attempts to push Pete Hegseth to release the full “double-tap” video of the summary execution of fishermen in the Caribbean Sea. Hegseth has thus far shown defiance, saying he will never release the full video for all members of Congress to see. The NDAA isn’t likely to force Hegseth’s hand, because the consequences are so meager. First of all, the language of the text only asks that Hegseth hand the unedited video to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, which are already seeing the video today. Second, the punishment for failing to provide the video is a loss of one-quarter of the defense secretary’s travel budget. (The NDAA also requires the Pentagon to issue overdue reports, including on Ukraine, before releasing the full travel budget.)

As stewards of the power of the purse, Congress could have increased the withholding of the travel budget to 100 percent, or conditioned other military appropriations on the video release (like troop pay, barracks construction, or weapons upgrades), or could have required a full showing to both Congress and the public. But it opted for constitutional softball, not hardball. This weakness has real consequences. As Trump and Russ Vought intuit that Congress will not sanction misbehavior, they are given license to keep doing it. Appropriations to end the government shutdown in November contained only minimal strings attached to funding. Predictably, the Trump administration has gone right back to withholding duly appropriated funds and threatening states that don’t comply with their demands.

Throughout November, governors and lawmakers were screaming about unreleased funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP); finally, after Thanksgiving, the Health and Human Services Department got around to providing $3.6 billion. The Department of Transportation continues to withhold funding for electric-vehicle infrastructure, triggering a lawsuit by 16 states filed earlier this week. The Agriculture Department is vowing to remove administrative funding for states that fail to turn over personal information of recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

This blackmail was blocked by a federal judge, but Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is moving forward anyway. Yesterday, the Office of Management and Budget announced it would break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado, seeming payback for the state not adhering to a plainly illegal pardon of a former local elections official on state crimes. NCAR receives appropriated funding, and dismantling it violates that appropriation. But Congress didn’t punish such withholdings, so they continue.

snip