Since the Founding, Congress has used its power of the purse to pass laws designed to ensure transparency regarding the government’s spending decisions. One such law was passed in 2022: Congress required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to post its decisions about how to apportion funds appropriated by Congress on a publicly available website. Later that same year, Congress made this requirement permanent.

The Trump administration abruptly stopped complying with the law last year, claiming it was unconstitutional. Plaintiffs Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Protect Democracy Project sued in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, which ruled in their favor and ordered the Trump administration to restore the public website. The Trump administration appealed that decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In May 2026, CAC filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs. Our brief makes two main points.

First, we describe the history of Congress’s plenary power of the purse, including its authority to pass laws requiring public disclosure of spending decisions. When the Framers wrote the Constitution more than two centuries ago, they took pains to deny the President the kind of sweeping powers the King of England had enjoyed over the purse strings. In the Taxing and Spending Clause, the Framers granted Congress the affirmative power to raise revenue and to spend funds. Conversely, the Framers wrote the Appropriations Clause as a limitation on the executive: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” Its supporters emphasized that the Clause would prevent the President from attempting to usurp the legislative branch. The Founders also adopted early transparency measures and public disclosure requirements to ensure accountability for the government’s spending decisions. For example, through the Statement and Account Clause, they required that “a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”

Second, we explain that because the President’s apportionment authority derives from Congress—not the Constitution—the disclosure requirements of the 2022 and 2023 Acts do not and cannot run afoul of the President’s Article II powers. Congress created the apportionment process by statute and therefore has plenary power over its terms and conditions. It has repeatedly passed legislation to prevent executive efforts to spend or withhold funds in contravention of appropriations statutes, as well as ensure Congress has the information it needs to craft those statutes. Congress created the apportionment process, and Congress has the exclusive power to prescribe how the apportionment process works, including by imposing the 2022 and 2023 Acts’ transparency measures. The President has no power to ignore these statutory requirements.