President Donald Trump is making his most aggressive move yet to try to bring the gears of the federal government — and powers delegated to Congress — under his direct control, former Bill Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich warned in a lengthy post to Facebook on Tuesday.
Trump's order, which was given by the Office of Management and Budget last night, freezes federal spending for hundreds of programs, ranging from nutritional assistance to veteran suicide hotlines. It stands in direct defiance of the Impoundment Control Act, a measure passed by Congress in the 1970s to reform Nixon-era abuses of executive power — and is a key plank of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 agenda, which Trump previously denied having any association with.
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Reich warned that under the terms of the OMB memo, we could see "a rapid halt to scores of federal functions already approved by Congress— from assistance to homeless shelters to financial aid for college students. Health grants distributed by the CDC, and state aid for disaster reconstruction, might also face delays."
"This is arguably Trump's most brazen move yet since returning to office," wrote Reich. "The mastermind behind the strategy is a key Project 2025 author and Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought ... [who] wants to resurrect the practice of withholding congressionally appropriated funds known as impoundment, which violates federal law and Supreme Court precedent."
Lawsuits are already flooding in from states to put a stop to this, Reich noted — but it doesn't make the situation any less horrifying.
This goes deeper than the usual "chaos and dysfunction" we've grown to expect from Trump, Reich warned.
"It's all part of Trump’s plan to consolidate power — substituting loyalists for experts across the government, using retribution to intimidate others, purging the government’s independent inspectors general, giving the Defense Department more authority over civilian life (and putting a raving loyalist in charge), giving Elon Musk authority to cut spending and roll back regulations, and readying a massive tax cut for the wealthy and big corporations."
In short, he concluded, it's the next step in Trump's vision "to replace democracy with a government dominated by authoritarian oligarchs."