Exclusive: W.H. cites George Washington for Trump paying troops without Congress
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Rebutting shutdown critics, President Trump's budget office sent Congress a memo Friday arguing that history shows he has the right to move money around to pay the troops.
- The memo cites presidents from George Washington in the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion to John F. Kennedy in creating the Peace Corps in 1961.
Why it matters: By paying the military while other federal workers go without, Trump is eliminating a major pressure point on him to negotiate.
- The government has been shut down since Oct. 1, as Senate Democrats refuse to back a no-strings-attached measure to fund the government.
- Democrats say they want Trump to agree to permanently extend subsidies for some Affordable Care Act enrollees.
- The shutdown has accelerated the executive branch's effort to grab more power than ever as Congress grows increasingly feckless and paralyzed by partisan gridlock.
Zoom in: The five-page memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget was drafted to oppose critics accusing Trump of violating a basic constitutional principle that is supposed to limit the executive branch from spending that's not authorized by the legislative branch.
- The memo argues the failure to pay troops is an emergency because, as Trump said in an Oct. 15 order, it "presents a serious and unacceptable threat to military readiness and the ability of our Armed Forces to protect and defend our Nation."
- Armed with that justification, OMB claims, Trump can move money around, specifically by raiding "The Research, Development, Test and Evaluation" fund.
- Since this RDT&E pays civilian salaries during normal times, the White House posits there's no harm in spending that money on military salaries in this "emergency" because the money is just sitting there unused.
Zoom out: The memo is the latest in a slew of what one official called "creative" ideas by OMB Director Russ Vought to keep the government running that are preferable to Trump and squeeze Democrats.
- OMB has argued that as many as 750,000 furlough federal workers aren't automatically guaranteed backpay.
- It has moved forward with firing federal workers during the shutdown, even as a judge has tried to block shutdown layoffs.
- And it's withholding billions of dollars of projects in areas with heavy concentrations of Democrats.
What they're saying: "Trump & Vought are now breaking both sides of spending law," Bobby Kogan, a former top OMB official under President Biden, wrote Wednesday on X.
- "They're illegally not spending where the law requires them to spend, & they're illegally spending where they don't have money to spend."
- Kogan argued Trump was becoming an "appropriations king" who has rendered any congressional spending agreements "meaningless."
The history: OMB dug deep in the archives of the Founding Fathers and unearthed 12 instances of the executive branch moving money around for military purposes without initial Congressional approval.
- In 1793 and 1794, Washington used money that was not authorized by Congress to to support "French fugitives from Santo Domingo" and to put down the Whisky Rebellion.
- In 1861, President Lincoln used $2 million for "military and naval measures" that were not authorized by Congress in the first year of the Civil War.
- In 1906, President Roosevelt's administration used $1.5 million of relief supplies, not authorized by Congress, to respond to San Francisco's earthquake and fire.
- In 1961, President Kennedy created the Peace Corps by executive order and funded it with Department of State contingency funds.
