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.
A record number of women are on the ballot next week, but many have struggled to finance their campaigns. Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of Republican Main Street Partnership, explains the funding gap that follows women on the campaign trail.
Axios is taking a different approach to success than many of its traditional media rivals. In a click-bait media universe, the digital media start-up is prioritizing engagement over page views. "We need engaged users, not just users," co-founder Roy Schwartz told Cheddar.
On Tuesday, Missouri could become the 32nd state in the U.S. to legalize medical marijuana. Cannabis legalization has garnered more public support in recent years, and medical pot is often thought to be the gateway to fuller legalization. While the Missouri medical community is split on the drug's medicinal value, much of the student body at the University of Missouri has a pro-legalization stance.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Democratic candidate running in Florida's 26th district, is slamming ads attacking her, including one that shows a man pointing a gun. Mucarsel-Powell lost her father to gun violence.
The markets looked to recover losses for October in the last day of trading for the month. Facebook shares were making solid gains on the heels of its third-quarter earnings results. Revenue slowed but the company beat estimates on earnings per share. Plus, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, an Ecuadorian immigrant running to represent Florida's 26th district, tells Cheddar the changes she would make if elected to office. The midterms are just six days out.
October's reputation as a volatile month for stocks will remain unbroken ー at least for now. The S&P 500 will close its worst October since the financial crisis a decade ago and its worst month in eight years. The gains in equities from a summer rally have been wiped out across just about every slice of the market.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
It's been nearly two weeks since Canada opened the retail market for recreational marijuana, and now it faces a shortage of supply across many of the retail operations in a number of provinces. "Given the robustness of the demand, suppliers clearly did have challenges getting the stores full and adequately supplied," Cowen Managing Director Vivien Azer told Cheddar's CannaBiz Tuesday.
It's not a coincidence that President Trump said he would sign an executive order to end birthright citizenship a week before a pivotal election. That's according to David Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic, who explained the politics behind the bombshell announcement.
