WASHINGTON -- A key White House figure in delaying aid to Ukraine last year reassured lawmakers Wednesday that the Trump administration realizes it is required under the law to spend money approved by Congress.
Acting budget director Russell Vought told the House Budget Committee that "we need to abide by the appropriation ... passed by Congress" when distributing agency dollars.
Vought was at the center of the events last year that prompted Trump's impeachment. As acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, he delayed the release of $391 million in aid to Ukraine. House Democrats impeached President Donald Trump in December on charges that he abused his office by ordering delays in aid to Ukraine to force that country's government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Trump was acquitted by the Senate last week.
Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company while his father managed the U.S. government's Ukraine portfolio under former President Barack Obama.
As the hearing wrapped up, committee chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., asked Vought about the Office of Management and Budget's adherence to budget law. The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan agency that reports to Congress, said in January that the Office of Management and Budget violated a federal law called the Impoundment Control Act when it held up the Ukraine security funds last year. The Constitution gives Congress control over federal spending, and the Office of Management and Budget broke the law in blocking funds that had been approved by Congress, the Government Accountability Office said.
"Do you feel it's your obligation to implement the spending priorities that the Congress establishes, or do you not?" Yarmuth asked Vought.
"We believe that we need to abide by the appropriation that you pass, by Congress," Vought replied. "That our ability to manage efficiently and economically within that appropriation, we look at the appropriations law and we look at the authorization law, we figure out what our flexibility is within that framework."
Vought refused to testify during last year's impeachment proceedings and the subject of Wednesday's appearance was Trump's 2021 budget that was released Monday.
Asked if the administration's concerns about corruption in Ukraine had been addressed such that security funds would not be held up in the future, Vought said: "I am not going to take any tools that the president has off the table, but I don't anticipate anything on that front."
Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press; and by Erica Werner of The Washington Post.
A Section on 02/13/2020