The president can defer the payroll tax, but he can't forgive it. I think you might see some pushback on, you know, the payroll tax and how that's implemented. The House sued President Obama, for example, over spending on the Affordable Care Act. Again, on the question of unemployment appropriations, it's conceivable that the Congress itself could have some standing to sue. I think those are going to be moving fairly rapidly. Would you agree? Are legal challenges all but certain? But this has been something the president has pushed pretty aggressively, maybe most famously with the border wall, trying to free up cash that, again, Congress has not appropriated.įADEL: President Trump last night said he'd probably get sued after he issued these orders. It's not likely that Congress is able to come back and shift, you know, small amounts in the budget, you know, on a regular basis during a fiscal year. Keep in mind the president does have some authority to move money around inside the federal budget. And certainly, the amount available to the president is unlikely to be sufficient to push those benefits too much further. So in terms of, you know, where the money for unemployment benefits is going to come from, he talked about 25% of it coming from the states' share of the CARES package that was passed in the spring.īut where the other 75% is coming from - that's not known and I would think would require congressional appropriation. And indeed, in the 1970s, there's the famous Supreme Court case denying the president the ability to not spend money that Congress has appropriated. The Constitution says that money can be only - can only be spent if it's appropriated by Congress. RUDALEVIGE: Well, that would be a lot cleaner. In that it is really using appropriated funds by Congress in ways that Congress might not have intended.įADEL: So does he need Congress to take action in any way to make the orders he announced a reality? The unemployment funding - that seems to be in a different category to me. But certainly, in that category, there are powers that have been delegated over time that can be activated in times of emergency. I haven't seen the text closely enough to know how exactly this is going to work or how the administration hopes. So he may be stretching those a little bit. You'll remember that back in the spring, the president issued a series of emergency and disaster declarations that helped activate these statutory provisions. But here, the president seems to be relying on powers granted to the executive branch over time by Congress - powers that can be used in times of war or national emergency. And there are certainly implementation difficulties with all of these. Maybe the least controversial - the payroll tax, student loans, housing. RUDALEVIGE: Well, I think we can divide today's executive actions into two categories. So the key question here, professor, is, can the president act on his own in the manner that he did today? It's great to be with you.įADEL: Great to have you. He joins us now from his home in Brunswick, Maine.ĪNDREW RUDALEVIGE: Hi. He's the chair of the department of government and legal studies at Bowdoin College in Maine. And for that, we're joined by Andrew Rudalevige. So we begin tonight with a close examination of presidential executive powers. The Constitution gives Congress the power to control federal spending, so there are legal questions hanging over at least some of the orders the president announced today. His other actions would extend a moratorium on evictions and the suspension of student loan repayments, as well as defer payroll tax collection for those earning less than $100,000 a year. Speaking at his golf club in New Jersey, the president said the measures would extend enhanced unemployment benefits of $400 a week, lower than the $600 benefit that expired at the end of last month. The move comes after the White House failed to come to an agreement with Congress on a new relief bill. President Trump today signed four executive orders to provide economic relief to millions of Americans amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
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