Opinion | My Fellow Members of Congress: This Is a Naked Power Grab
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Guest Essay
My Fellow Members of Congress: This Is a Naked Power Grab
Feb. 12, 2025
Credit… Philotheus Nisch for The New York Times By Rosa DeLauro
Representative DeLauro represents Connecticut’s Third District and is the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
The Constitution is clear about many things. There are three branches of government. Presidents can be elected to only two terms. And Congress, not the executive branch, has the power of the purse, meaning the power to control federal spending. It is right there, as clear as day in Article I, Section 9, Clause 7: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.”
This is a bedrock principle of our government, which President Trump and his unchecked billionaire buddy are attempting to subvert. They are trying to do so through a variety of avenues, including using social media platforms to berate elected officials into submitting to their demands, impounding funds — which is nothing less than stealing congressionally appropriated dollars promised to Americans — and empowering the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
What all these tactics to get around Congress have in common is simple: They are undemocratic. I will not surrender the authority of Congress and the Appropriations Committee, where I serve as ranking member, to the tide of cronyism and unlawful decision making that threatens to unravel our constitutional form of government.
The warning signs were clear at the end of the 118th Congress late last year. I watched what should have been an uncontroversial bill to prevent a government shutdown, which included funding for disaster relief and a variety of bipartisan priorities, get derailed and come close to defeat when an unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, decided to intervene in the legislative process and browbeat Republicans into opposing their own leadership’s priorities.
The Appropriations Committees — Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate — negotiated the funding portions of this bill. In this committee, we carry out Congress’s power of the purse by providing the financial resources to programs and agencies that serve the American people.
It does not always go smoothly. I have long advocated funding the government in an orderly and regular fashion by passing annual appropriations bills, a duty that has often been derailed by Republican dysfunction or demands for untenable spending cuts. At the end of the day, our work is about funding the basic services Americans rely on. It is a serious obligation, and it requires us to work together.
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