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Elon Musk doesn’t have the authority to overturn programs and spending priorities decided by Congress. And yet he is doing that, for example he "deleted" 18F th

Elon Musk doesn’t have the authority to overturn programs and spending priorities decided by Congress. And yet he is doing that, for example he "deleted" 18F that build the Direct File site for filing taxes. Then USAID the foreign assistance agency. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Mr. Musk gloated on X at 1:54 a.m. Monday. “Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.”

pfannkuchen 2y ago
I think that delegating power to government agencies are a lot more complicated than is commonly understood. My surface level understanding is that the agencies run under the executive branch with funding from congress. If that is true, then the chief executive would have the authority to instruct the agency to do nothing and spend no money, but he wouldn’t have the authority to instruct the agency to spend more than authorized by congress. I guess congress will have to garbage collect the funding as a technicality, though there may be a built in mechanism for reallocating underspent budgets.
- Volundr 2y ago
  > If that is true, then the chief executive would have the authority to instruct the agency to do nothing and spend no money This is called Impoundment, and is illegal. Just ask Nixon. The Executive branch is actually required to spend as dictated by Congress. There is a portion of spending that is discretionary, but it's a small minority of the Federal budget, and does not include the things currently being targeted. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impoundment_of_appropriated_funds https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impoundment_of_appropriated_...
- mplanchard 2y ago
  This is not correct. The executive branch is required to disburse the money allocated by Congress. See the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
jdminhbg 2y ago
> Elon Musk doesn’t have the authority to overturn programs and spending priorities decided by Congress. And yet he is doing that, for example he "deleted" 18F that build the Direct File site for filing taxes. This is the problem I have with all of the commentary on DOGE, it's extremely slippery about what is being paid for by whom and how. The official website for 18F says they are not allocated funding by Congress: https://18f.gsa.gov/about/ https://18f.gsa.gov/about/
dragonwriter 2y ago
> And yet he is doing that, for example he "deleted" 18F that build the Direct File site for filing taxes. AFAIK, neither 18F nor Direct File were established by statute, both were set up by executive action within existing legal authority. It's not clear to me that terminating either as functions at executive discretion is illegal.

pfannkuchen 2y ago

I think that delegating power to government agencies are a lot more complicated than is commonly understood. My surface level understanding is that the agencies run under the executive branch with funding from congress. If that is true, then the chief executive would have the authority to instruct the agency to do nothing and spend no money, but he wouldn’t have the authority to instruct the agency to spend more than authorized by congress. I guess congress will have to garbage collect the funding as a technicality, though there may be a built in mechanism for reallocating underspent budgets.

Volundr 2y ago
> If that is true, then the chief executive would have the authority to instruct the agency to do nothing and spend no money This is called Impoundment, and is illegal. Just ask Nixon. The Executive branch is actually required to spend as dictated by Congress. There is a portion of spending that is discretionary, but it's a small minority of the Federal budget, and does not include the things currently being targeted. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impoundment_of_appropriated_funds https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impoundment_of_appropriated_...
mplanchard 2y ago
This is not correct. The executive branch is required to disburse the money allocated by Congress. See the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

jdminhbg 2y ago

> Elon Musk doesn’t have the authority to overturn programs and spending priorities decided by Congress. And yet he is doing that, for example he "deleted" 18F that build the Direct File site for filing taxes. This is the problem I have with all of the commentary on DOGE, it's extremely slippery about what is being paid for by whom and how. The official website for 18F says they are not allocated funding by Congress: https://18f.gsa.gov/about/ https://18f.gsa.gov/about/

dragonwriter 2y ago

> And yet he is doing that, for example he "deleted" 18F that build the Direct File site for filing taxes. AFAIK, neither 18F nor Direct File were established by statute, both were set up by executive action within existing legal authority. It's not clear to me that terminating either as functions at executive discretion is illegal.