The Authorities Accountability Workplace simply issued an enormous detailed report about how the Trump administration illegally impounded billions of {dollars} by suspending approval of any new electrical car charging tasks. Predictably, nevertheless, the administration doesn’t care and responded by simply shrugging it off.
You might be in all probability wishing you lived in an period the place you didn’t should care about dense GAO experiences, and you can belief that the federal government was simply type of buzzing alongside. However all of us reside within the Trump period, which implies that authorities tasks are topic to the whims of President Donald Trump or Elon Musk, which is why you’re now studying in regards to the Nationwide Electrical Car Infrastructure Method Program. Fortunate!
Again in February, the Federal Freeway Administration—which is a part of the Division of Transportation and at the moment being wildly mishandled by former actuality TV star Sean Duffy—issued a memo saying that the brand new management of DOT has “decided to review the policies underlying the implementation of the NEVI Formula Program.”
The memo rescinded the Biden-era steerage for NEVI and suspended approval of all State Electrical Car Infrastructure Deployment plans. The one factor that will proceed is reimbursement to states which have already incurred prices—however solely till the administration will get round to issuing new steerage.
So why is the administration holding again this cash? Based on the FHWA memo, it’s the now-familiar justification for a lot of the administration’s actions in gutting applications: steerage must be “updated to align with current U.S. DOT policy and priorities.”
There’s only one drawback with holding again this cash: the Impoundment Management Act of 1974, which says that the manager department can’t withhold funds already allotted by Congress. However the administration has been flouting the ICA for months, starting with Trump’s try to freeze all federal spending, regardless of these funds already being appropriated by Congress.
So what occurred when the GAO report dropped? Nicely, Russell Vought, the top of the Workplace of Administration and Funds, at the moment very busy implementing Mission 2025, went on X to say the federal government was simply going to disregard it. Oh, and in addition that the GAO “played a partisan role in the first-term impeachment hoax.”
The GAO is a boring factor, and that’s meant in essentially the most complimentary method. It’s a congressional watchdog that examines authorities spending and gives Congress and businesses with “objective, non-partisan, fact-based information to help the government save money and work more efficiently.” Huh. That sounds lots prefer it was already doing the type of factor that the made-up Division of Authorities Effectivity says it was doing.
The GAO has 39 different open impoundment-related investigations, however Vought preemptively shrugged these off as nicely, saying that the GAO would name the whole lot an impoundment to “grind our work to manage taxpayer dollars effectively to a halt” and that each one investigations had been “non-events with no consequence.”
Associated | Senate Republicans killed the filibuster. Good
Whereas the administration is busy flat-out rejecting the oversight capabilities of the GAO, Republicans in Congress are busy flouting a distinct oversight physique. Final week, when Senate Republicans voted to dam California from setting its personal emission requirements, they did so by overriding the Senate parliamentarian. Just like the GAO, the Senate parliamentarian is a nonpartisan physique. It advises Congress on something that requires interpretation of the principles of the Senate.
Each the GAO and the parliamentarian suggested that the Congressional Overview Act couldn’t be used to strip California of its emissions waivers as a result of these waivers should not the identical as company guidelines. Paying that no thoughts, the GOP simply overrode the parliamentarian.
It’s by no means clear what occurs when Republicans simply ignore oversight our bodies. There appears to be no penalties for the administration upending checks and balances to seize as a lot energy as attainable for the manager department.
Republicans in Congress appear to be on board with this, letting the administration impound funds with nary a peep. Finally, the stance of the GOP is that oversight is for suckers and that anybody who tells them they’ll’t do one thing ought to pound sand.
This isn’t governance; it’s defiance wrapped in pretending that refusing to spend duly allotted funds is definitely a boon for taxpayers, saving them billions. We all know these financial savings are a lie, however nobody appears to have any thought easy methods to cease the administration from doing no matter it needs.
