After ceding power of the purse, GOP lawmakers beg Trump team for
funds
Republican senators find themselves in an unusual position these days:
begging Trump officials to release funds they themselves appropriated.
Senators have in recent days made the case to Cabinet secretaries and
other Trump officials to let money flow back into their states. They
are trying to finagle exceptions to President Donald Trump's sweeping
executive orders or cuts made by billionaire Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE
Service that freeze hundreds of billions of dollars, including money
for farmers and infrastructure projects. That push comes as the
administration has also sought to fire a wide swath of federal
employees -- some of whom live in red states.
...
...
The aggressive move to cut spending unilaterally "negates Congress's
hard-won power over appropriations," said Jessica Riedl, a budget
expert with the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank, who
predicted lawmakers were "afraid" to more forcefully grab back their appropriations power given Trump's popularity with the GOP base.
"Eventually Congress is going to have to take back its power of the
purse rather than nicely asking the administration for favors," she
said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/19/trump-musk-senators-funding/
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