Opinion | Rosa DeLauro: Congress, Not Trump, Controls the Money

The Constitution is clear about many things.There are three branches of government.

Presidents can only be elected to two terms.And Congress, not the executive branch, has the power of the purse, meaning the power to control federal spending.

It is right there, as clear as day in Article I, Section 9, Clause 7: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”This is a bedrock principle of our government, which President Trump and his unchecked billionaire buddy are attempting to subvert.They are trying to do so through a variety of avenues, including using social media platforms to berate elected officials into submitting to their demands, impounding funds — which is nothing less than stealing congressionally appropriated dollars promised to Americans — and empowering the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.What all these tactics to get around Congress have in common is simple: They are undemocratic.

I will not surrender the authority of Congress and the Appropriations Committee, where I serve as ranking member, to the tide of cronyism and unlawful decision making that threatens to unravel our constitutional form of government.The warning signs were clear at the end of the 118th Congress late last year.I watched what should have been an uncontroversial bill to prevent a government shutdown, which included funding for disaster relief and a variety of bipartisan priorities, get derailed and come close to defeat when an unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, decided to intervene in the legislative process and browbeat Republicans into opposing their own leadership’s priorities.The Appropriations Committees — Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate — negotiated the funding portions of this bill.

In this committee, we carry out Congress’s power of the purse by providing the financial resources to programs and agencies that serve the American people.It does not always go smoothly.I have long...