Trump administration violated ‘impoundment' law by freezing electric vehicle funding, GAO finds

Politico

22-05-2025

The Government Accountability Office ruled Thursday that the Department of Transportation violated the 51-year-old law blocking presidents from withholding funding Congress has approved.
The congressional watchdog ruled the Trump administration illegally withheld funds by suspending new obligations under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, the $5 billion initiative from the bipartisan infrastructure law to build charging stations across the country.
The GAO could issue similar rulings in the coming months, as the independent, nonpartisan watchdog agency works through at least 39 investigations into whether the Trump administration violated the Impoundment Control Act. GAO rulings are nonbinding but could influence Congress' response to President Donald Trump's freezing of billions of dollars lawmakers intended to flow to specific programs and projects, as well as the many ongoing lawsuits challenging the president's tactics.
As Trump and his top advisers argue that the decades-old law is unconstitutional, GAO notes the Constitution 'specifically vests Congress with the power of the purse.'
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement the GAO decision 'affirms what we've long known: the President is breaking the law to block funding Congress passed on a bipartisan basis and that is owed to the American people — simply because he disagrees with it.'
The department has said that pausing the charger program was necessary as it rewrites rules for using the grant money, but the federal watchdog dismissed that argument.
If the Trump administration 'wishes to make changes' to funding under the program, GAO wrote, the president needs to send Congress a so-called rescissions request or propose new legislation to make changes to funding mandates already signed into law.
GAO also ruled the Transportation Department erred in its interpretation of when funds were 'obligated' under the program — a key factor because DOT allowed states to keep spending money that was already obligated when it ordered the pause in February.
Under the Trump administration's interpretation — which it said matched the way it operated other highway aid programs — the funding for electric vehicle infrastructure was considered obligated when states signed project agreements with the Federal Highway Administration to build a charging station. That meant $526 million was obligated when it suspended the program, according to DOT.
But GAO said that under its interpretation of the infrastructure law, NEVI funds are considered obligated when they become available to states under the statute each fiscal year — meaning more than $3.2 billion should be considered obligated.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget called GAO's opinion 'wrong' and said the Transportation Department is 'appropriately using the authority granted to it by statute to review state plans.'
A DOT spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Trump administration is also facing a lawsuit from 17 states over the frozen EV charger funding.
The GAO ruling came the same morning Senate Republicans voted to overturn a California emission standards waiver issued by the Biden administration, despite the GAO and Senate parliamentarian ruling the waiver did not qualify for reversal using the Congressional Review Act process.