Even as President Trump and his administration struggle with runaway, baked-in spending that threatens the very existence of the Republic, the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate is focused on forcing the administration to spend significant sums on nonsense rather than getting our fiscal house in order.
Top Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, alarmed by President’s Trump’s moves to withhold funding approved by Congress, have teamed up to add new safeguards to next year’s spending bills that would ensure the Trump administration allocates federal dollars as lawmakers intend.
The little-noticed moves are part of a quiet escalation in the battle between the legislative and executive branches over federal spending powers. Ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline for funding the government, the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee have said they must take extra steps to assert their authority over the allocation of government dollars, after the Trump administration has repeatedly questioned and defied congressional instructions on spending.
“In the past, the agency and department secretaries have always, or almost always, followed that guidance,” Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who leads the committee, said in an interview. “But in this administration, it is clear that we need to move far more of that language on how the money should be spent into the bills themselves.”
As we saw during the initial phase of the administration, when Elon Musk and DOGE were ferreting out fraud, waste, and abuse, billions upon billions of dollars were spent in things that were nothing more than a grift to support far left non-profits and politicians (Et Tu, Stacey? Stacey Abrams Linked to a $2 Billion Environmental Grant Rolled Up by DOGE – RedState). Just this week, the administration terminated $783 billion in DEI-related "scientific" grants; see Trump Chalks Up Another Victory at the Supreme Court Over Ending DEI – RedState.
What is envisioned is expanding the legislation governing spending bills to include tables and reports that are currently included in non-binding Senate reports, thereby forcing the administration to strictly adhere to the Senate's desires.
The guardrails are largely technical and include putting instructions into legislative text that would have previously been spelled out in nonbinding reports.
For example, officials say that detailed tables on spending for major agencies such as the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services are now being added to the text of the bills themselves, to try to assure that the funds are used for their specified purposes. The guardrails also include significant new requirements for reporting to Congress on terminating contracts and grant awards, as well as for making substantial reductions in the federal work force.
All of this is also tied to a battle over the return of earmarks to appropriations. Even though officially banned by the Senate GOP conference, "Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) loaded more than $810 million in earmarks and directed spending for Maine in the fiscal 2026 spending bills crafted by her committee."
It was also possible that some GOP senators will side with the Democrats in holding Trump's massive number of nominees hostage in return for spending concessions.
The saving grace on this is that the House is unlikely to go along, but even there the Republicans are letting their desire for pork get the better of whatever feelings they had about cutting the deficit; "Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.), an outspoken House conservative, has requested more than $55 million for his district." Once the Freedom Caucus chairman is fighting for porkbarrel spending, you really have to question why that caucus exists.
All of this is setting the stage for a Republic-defining battle of wills and lawyers. Spendthrifts, like Susan Collins and many other senators, see appropriations as a floor. That is, you have to spend every cent, even if it is not needed. President Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought see them as a ceiling that can't be exceeded, but without a requirement to spend it all. Historically, presidents have had the authority to not spend money and return it to the Treasury. However, in 1974, taking advantage of a president engulfed in the Watergate scandal, Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act. This act creates a series of, in my opinion, unconstitutional hoops a president must jump through to avoid spending money. The default, therefore, moved from spending wisely to acting like a drunken sailor in Olongapo.
Congress, in general, has shown itself to be a horrible steward of the Republic's funds. It is under the influence of lobbyists and weak members who are willing to use our tax money to buy votes back home. Unless it works with President Trump to reduce the size of government and bring deficit spending under control, we are looking at a Great Depression-style crisis in not very many years.
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