SHOCK MOMENT: OMB Director Russ Vought Claims That Congress Only Sets Limits On Appropriations

Article I, Section 9, Clause 7:

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

Strictly speaking, the Appropriations Clause does not confer a distinct legislative power upon Congress, on the order of those powers enumerated in Article I, Section 8. Instead, the Clause is phrased as a limitation on government action.4 Thus, the Supreme Court’s cases explain that any exercise of a power granted by the Constitution to the Judiciary or to the Executive is limited by a valid reservation of congressional control over funds in the Treasury.