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.
the White House released a memorandum that detailed a rough transcript of a July phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which revealed that Trump pushed the leader to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Sabrina Singh, national press secretary for Cory Booker 2020, told Cheddar on Tuesday she is "cautiously optimistic" the campaign will meet its goal by the date.
President Trump reiterated his "America first" worldview and policy agenda on Tuesday in a speech at the United Nations that bemoaned globalism and instead urged mutual support among sovereign nations.
The decision largely stemmed from revelations that President Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden’s son and allegedly tied Congressionally-allocated U.S. military aid to the issue.
The idea: force companies to publicly disclose how their valuation would fare should climate change continue versus how they would do should temperature rise be capped at 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels.
The acclaimed Swedish teen climate activist slammed world leaders on Monday at the United Nations' Climate Action Summit in New York, condemning governments across the board for political apathy on the crisis.
‘We can either wait on Mother Nature — or we can give it a shot ourselves.’
New York City’s march was led by renowned Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, who arrived in the U.S. late last month after a two-week journey across the Atlantic in a solar-powered yacht in an effort to draw attention to her cause.
Keith McCarty, CEO and founder of Wayv, wants to use tech to ease the many “friction points” in the complicated world of business-to-business cannabis logistics.
In a resolute response, California said it is set to launch a major legal challenge — one that will surely be lengthy and have broad implications on the way the U.S. confronts the climate crisis and on state's rights.
