Appropriators Must Ensure Trump Complies with Fiscal Guardrails, Dozens of Groups Tell Congress

Dear Members of Congress:

With the President’s budget request released and Congress fully turning its attention to the Fiscal Year 2027 government funding process, the oversight responsibility of the House and Senate Appropriations committees has never been more important.

The Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations laws currently funding our government contain multitudes of provisions – agreed to on a bipartisan basis – that reassert Congress’s constitutionally afforded “power of the purse.” These guardrails are designed to ensure the current Administration faithfully executes the nation’s laws that fund the services, investments, and protections that taxpayers across the country expect.

The critical next step is for Congress – led by appropriators – to verify that the Administration is carrying out the law exactly as Congress passed it and the President signed it. The Clean Budget Coalition and its allied organizations urge the Administration to faithfully and lawfully implement these funding measures. Appropriators must use committee hearings and subsequent markups to ensure the Administration follows through and to consider whether additional reforms are needed moving forward.

The Clean Budget Coalition represents a broad range of Americans, including labor, scientific, consumer, research, good government, faith, civil rights, community, health, environmental, business, and public interest organizations. Federal investments approved by Congress support jobs, public health, infrastructure, environmental protection, education, and economic stability nationwide. When funds are delayed, withheld, or redirected, families can lose access to services, workers can lose protections, communities can lose critical investments, and public trust in government can be weakened.

The Appropriations Committee must carefully scrutinize the Administration’s compliance with FY26 guardrails, including:

• Requirements for monthly reports on the status of funds, both available for obligation and obligated;
• Whether funding was allocated to specific programs, projects, and activities as directed in statute or by reference to funding tables in the report language accompanying the laws;
• Adherence to provisions requiring funding to be allocated to grantees by a date certain or in regular intervals;
• Proper advance notification to Congress before funding transfers between accounts or termination of any existing grants or awards;
• Fidelity to agency missions by maintaining adequate staffing levels to fulfill statutory responsibilities promptly; and
• Preservation of existing indirect cost rate structures for research grantees.

From publicly available data on mandated reporting of apportionments, there are already many examples that raise concerns. For example, within the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture, the Administration has conditioned funding on aligning with “Administration priorities” in its spending plans, many of which have yet to be made public despite a court order requiring disclosure. At Treasury, $289 million in FY26 appropriated funds for Community Development Financial Institutions have not been apportioned, resulting in an impoundment and preventing obligation; the same is true for $289 million of FY25 Institute of Education Sciences funding at the Department of Education.

The Administration must answer for these blatant subversions of appropriations law. And as the Administration continues to undertake assaults on funding that are not addressed by the guardrails included in FY26 appropriations bills, Congress must remain vigilant in opposing these abuses and consider further remedies in the FY27 process.  These protections should be provided broadly – to as many programs as possible –  to prevent against Executive Branch overreach.

The American people expect Congress to defend its constitutional authority over federal spending and to ensure that federal agencies carry out funding decisions as written. The Administration should obligate and expend funds consistent with congressional directives and statutory timelines. Delays or pauses in funding that are not grounded in clear legal requirements raise serious concerns, risk undermining Congress’s intent, and threaten to disrupt the delivery of services and investments that millions of Americans expect to receive with their taxpayer dollars.

Sincerely,

AFT: Education, Healthcare, Public Services
AFSCME
The AIDS Institute
All Above All
American Forests
American Rivers Action Fund
Americans for Tax Fairness
Animal Welfare Institute
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Clean Water Action
Coalition on Human Needs
Conservation Lands Foundation
Consumer Action
Consumer Federation of America
Defenders of Wildlife
Earthjustice Action
Economic Policy Institute
Endangered Species Coalition
GreenLatinos
Humanity United Action
Indivisible
Kids for Saving Earth
League of Conservation Voters
National Alliance to End Homelessness
National Education Association
National Low Income Housing Coalition
National Parks Conservation Association
National Women’s Law Center
Natural Resources Defense Council
Next 100 Coalition
Oceana
PAI
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Project Eleven Hundred
Public Advocacy for Kids (PAK)
Public Citizen
RESULTS
Service Employees International Union
Southern Poverty Law Center
Union of Concerned Scientists
The Wilderness Society
Wyoming Wilderness Association
YWCA USA