Pocca

Floor Speech

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Mr. LICCARDO. Mr. Speaker, you remember this friendly and famous fellow, Bill, as in: I am just a bill here on Capitol Hill.

I go back to ``Schoolhouse Rock!'' because I think the President needs a civics lesson that the rest of us received as kids watching Saturday morning cartoons with our mouths full of Corn Flakes.

Today, I am proud to join Representatives Dave Min and Eugene Vindman and 30 cosponsors in introducing the Protect Our Constitution and Communities Act. It is just a bill on Capitol Hill, but it offers an opportunity to Congress to restore the rule of law against President Trump's unconstitutional highjacking of Federal spending.

As we all learned in school, two separate provisions of Article I of our Constitution allocate what is known as the power of the purse to Congress. As articulated by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, our Founders made the spending power the bedrock of the Constitution's allocation of powers in our government. They sought to ensure that the expenditure of the people's money would remain in that body that is closest to the people.

No longer. Under the dodgy dictatorship of DOGE, we have seen the unconstitutional and haphazard seizure of billions of Federal dollars critically needed in communities throughout our country for everything from food safety inspections to healthcare for veterans. Although DOGE has failed to meet any of Elon Musk's overblown claims for saving taxpayer dollars, DOGE has done a superb job of creating chaos.

With cuts of thousands of employees in the SSA, for example, the website that millions of Social Security recipients depend upon for services and information has crashed four times in only 10 days. We have seen shutdowns of critical health research. Tens of thousands of renters will be unable to pay their summer utility bills, and thousands more parents will be stranded without Head Start childcare.

All of this is in violation of our Federal appropriations laws, laws that this Congress passed and the President signed, a far cry from the constitutional imperative that the President ``shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed,'' so says Article II.

If the President wants to spend differently than the law dictates, the Constitution provides him with a couple of options.

First, he can introduce a bill, and he can ask Congress to change its spending priorities. It shouldn't be hard to persuade this Congress because our Republican majorities in both Houses have been unable to muster the courage to oppose other Trumpian blunders, whether they are tariffs that burden families with higher grocery bills or the deprivation of millions of Americans without healthcare coverage or the kleptocratic meme coin schemes to enrich the Trump family by more than $200 million. President Trump can simply ask Congress to pass a bill here on Capitol Hill.

Another option is provided through a 1974 law, the Impoundment Control Act, or ICA. Under the ICA, the President can notify Congress when he intends to withhold or impound funds through either deferral or rescission. The law requires the President to provide Congress and the public with the reason for the impoundment, along with the estimated impacts on our communities.

The Presidents, throughout the history since the passage of the ICA in 1974, have followed the law providing notice to Congress on 243 occasions since it was enacted; that is, until President Trump took office this January. Instead, Donald Trump and DOGE have haphazardly frozen, blocked, and unlawfully impounded funds.

Now, President Trump may have told a reporter 2 weeks ago that he does not know if he has an obligation to follow the Constitution. He actually took an oath to do just that only 115 days ago.

POCCA, Protect Our Constitution and Communities Act, will hold him accountable for doing so. It will empower American States, cities, and individuals to fight back when they are harmed by the executive branch's unlawful impoundment of funds. By giving Americans a right of action to seek injunctions or damages, POCCA gives the ICA and Article I of our Constitution real teeth. By waiving qualified immunity, it would make Elon Musk and any other administration officials who willfully break the law personally liable.

Mr. Speaker, our Constitution is not negotiable.

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