WATCH: Sen. Murray asks Trump budget director nominee about following impoundment law

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., pressed Russell Vought, the president's nominee to run the White House Office of Management and Budget, on Wednesday if the Trump administration will follow the law when Congress appropriates money.

She specifically asked about the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which codified the federal budget process that is still used today. While Congress has the power to appropriate money, it is the president’s job to spend it. Impoundment is when the president declines to spend the money Congress has appropriated. In 2023, during his campaign for president, Trump said he would use impoundment “to squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy for massive savings. … This will help quickly to stop inflation and slash the deficit.”

Trump has argued that the law is unconstitutional, and Vought has advocated for expanded presidential powers on impoundment.

“We will faithfully uphold the law. The president ran on the notion that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional. I agree with that,” Vought said when asked if he would follow the law.

He said Trump and his team would explore the parameters of the Impoundment Control Act.

“If the rule of the law in a state is that it's a 15-mile-an-hour speed limit, you can't just say, ‘well, I think that's irresponsible, and I'm going to challenge it, so, therefore, I don't have to follow it,’” Murray said. “The impoundment law is the law. Will you follow it or not?”

Vought did not directly answer the question.

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