Your editorial “Trump, Obama and the Spending Power” (Jan. 18) criticizing the GAO’s opinion on Ukraine funding is correct. The GAO’s conclusions that the Office of Management and Budget violated the law are misleading at best. The Impoundment Control Act recognizes the authority of the president to defer congressional spending, but directs the president to report such a deferral to Congress (2 USC §685) and give the reasons for it. Deferrals are permitted if they are consistent with legislative policy and authorized by law (2 USC §684). The act recognizes that a president (for whatever reasons) might fail to send the required message to Congress (2 USC §686) and contains a specific remedy for such a reporting omission by the executive. The remedy is that the GAO comptroller general “shall” make a report to Congress about the deferral (2 USC §686). The act also authorizes the comptroller general to bring a civil suit to require that the deferred funds be spent (2 USC §686).

The balanced framework of the act belies any conclusion that, with respect to federal budget rules, the president’s move to temporarily defer sending taxpayer dollars to Ukraine violates any legal rule. As an aside, I would note that the historically nonpartisan GAO began to grow partisan when it was renamed the Government Accountability Office in 2004 from its original name of the General Accounting Office in 1921.

Prof. Steve Charnovitz

George Washington University

Law School