Congressional Appropriations Overreach

The Anti-Deficiency Act, a 150-year-old federal law, prohibits the executive branch from spending funds that have not been explicitly appropriated by Congress for the specific purpose for which they are intended. Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to use funds that have a "reasonable and logical connection to transportation security management operations" from the "Big Beautiful One" law — a law that allocated $10 billion to the Department of Homeland Security for border-related functions, without any specific mention of the Transportation Security Administration.

Budget analysts immediately pointed out this ambiguity. Devin O’Connor, senior researcher at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, told CNBC: "The administration has not provided any real clarification about what they are doing publicly, which allows anyone to determine whether what they are doing is legal or not. The administration has not provided any public justification in any form."