Washington, D.C. – Following the release of a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirming that the Trump Administration broke the Impoundment Control Act in its withholding of aid from Ukraine, and in the wake of reports that the administration may once again raid funding from the Department of Defense to pay for the president’s border wall, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the statement below:
“Today, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that the president broke the law by delaying nearly $400 million in security assistance that Congress appropriated specifically for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia. This week, we learned that the president may once again defy Congress by seeking to redirect $7.2 billion from the military to pay for his border wall. The will of a duly elected Congress is not subject to presidential whims. As the GAO explained: ‘Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law.’
“In other words, no president is above the law.”