WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government's watchdog agency said Thursday a White House office violated federal law in withholding security assistance to Ukraine.
The Government Accountability Office said in a report that the Office of Management and Budget violated the law in holding up the aid. The freeze is at the center of the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
The independent agency, which reports to Congress, said OMB violated the Impoundment Control Act in delaying the security assistance Congress authorized for Ukraine for “policy reasons,” rather than technical budgetary needs.
“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” wrote the agency's general counsel, Thomas Armstrong, in the report.
OMB has argued the hold was appropriate and necessary.
“We disagree with GAO's opinion. OMB uses its apportionment authority to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent consistent with the President's priorities and with the law," said OMB spokeswoman Rachel Semmel.
Trump was impeached last month on charges of abusing his power for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democratic rivals, as he was withholding the aid, and for obstructing Congress' ensuing probe. The Senate is set to begin its trial on Thursday.
As inflation continues to heat up faster than expected, those on the side of seeing it as a transitory issue tied to the pandemic remain steadfast in their position. Cheddar's Alex Vuocolo takes a look at team transitory and its critics.
Michigan’s attorney general says she drank too much booze before a big football game between Michigan and Michigan State.
Congress has created a new requirement for automakers: Find a high-tech way to keep drunken people from driving cars.
President Joe Biden is using his first Veterans Day in office to announce an effort to better understand, identify and treat medical conditions suffered by troops deployed to toxic environments.
A judge in Michigan has approved a $626 million settlement for Flint residents and others who were exposed to lead-contaminated water.
Until recently, abortion was criminalized in Mexico. Now, Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion at the same time the strictest abortion law in the United States went into effect in Texas, changing the dynamics of seeking abortions in the region.
Biden is holding up Baltimore’s port as a blueprint on how to reduce shipping bottlenecks that have held back the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic
The Democrat and former police officer has since doubled down on his plans to make New York a crypto hub along the lines of Miami,
The fight over anti-abortion ordinances has moved to southwest Ohio where alleged "Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn" are spreading from Texas.
Britain’s Prince Harry has sharply attacked the failure of social media companies to challenge hate online, revealing that he warned the chief executive of Twitter ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots that the site was being used to stage political unrest.
