White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought on Friday morning slammed a Congressional watchdog’s opinion which had suggested that the Trump administration violated the law by withholding congressionally appropriated money from a Biden-era electric vehicle (EV) charging program.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), an nonpartisan, independent agency that assists Congress, issued a non-binding ruling Thursday that the Department of Transportation (DOT) illegally impounded funds by pausing new obligations to the agency’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) grant program. Vought criticized the agency for interfering with the Trump administration’s commitments to save taxpayer dollars, marking the first clash between the White House and GAO during the president’s second term.
“Just so we are all clear over the next several months. The Government Accountability Office or GAO is a quasi-independent arm of the legislative branch that played a partisan role in the first-term impeachment hoax,” Vought wrote on X Friday morning. “They are going to call everything an impoundment because they want to grind our work to manage taxpayer dollars effectively to a halt.”
The Trump DOT announced in February that the agency would halt new funding to the EV charging program to review its “inefficient guidance and failed performance.” The $5 billion program was established under Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to help spur the deployment of EV charging infrastructure.
Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg failed to implement the program quickly and the majority of funding remains unobligated. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy alleged in February that California has spent just 1% of its allocated funding.
GAO concluded that the Trump administration violated the 1974 Impoundment Control Act (ICA) by freezing new obligations to states under the program.
“DOT is not authorized to withhold these funds from expenditure and DOT must continue to carry out the statutory requirements of the program,” the GAO wrote. “While DOT cannot withhold these funds under the ICA, DOT could propose funds for rescission or otherwise propose legislation to make changes to the NEVI Formula Program for consideration by Congress.”
The independent watchdog’s finding comes as GAO has launched myriad probes into the Trump administration for impounding funds appropriated by Congress.
GAO head Gene Dodaro, an Obama appointee, told senators in April that the agency is currently pursuing at least 39 investigations into the administration’s funding freezes.
Vought foreshadowed that GAO would continue to issue similar findings, but largely dismissed any potential fallout from adverse rulings by the independent watchdog.
“These are non-events with no consequence,” Vought said. “Rearview mirror stuff.”
GAO determined that the Trump administration illegally withheld Ukraine aid in 2020 after House Democrats impeached the president for freezing military assistance to the country. Senate Democrats attempted to use the GAO opinion as further evidence to convict Trump.
Senate Republicans torched GAO earlier this week for determining that waivers granted by the Biden administration to California allowing the state to effectively ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 were not eligible for review under the Congressional Review Act. Senate Majority Leader John Thune accused the watchdog of “improperly intervening to protect Biden-era rules.”
A GAO spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation, “GAO’s Impoundment Control Act (ICA) decision does not take a position on the policy goals of electric vehicle charging infrastructure program.”
“Our legal decisions only examine the procedural issues and compliance with the law,” the spokesperson continued. “GAO’s mission is to provide non-partisan, fact-based information to Congress, to help it carry out its constitutional legislative, appropriations, and oversight functions and protect the power of the purse. We stand behind the quality of our work.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the GAO spokesperson’s comment.
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