Author: CRA Staff

Impoundment is constitutional and enjoys a long history of usage. Further, the restoration of impoundment—and the inherent understanding that appropriations are permissive ceilings and not mandatory floors—diminishes partisan political warfare and returns the federal government back to a healthier era where tension was vested more in separate branches of government and less in partisan differences and the courts.

If America’s national debt is to be brought to heel, inflation tamed, and deficits eliminated, the constitutional power of the Executive Branch to impound funds is a critical tool to accomplish this task.

The Recess Appointments Clause, Article II, Section 2, Clause 3, provides that the President “shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.” 

The following is a summary of a full-length legal case for the President’s authority to deploy the military against border invasion.