Court denies Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s request for stay in Protect Democracy’s case to bring apportionments back online

On August 9, a D.C. Circuit appeals panel unanimously denied OMB’s request for a stay in our suit to get OMB to disclose their spending decisions publicly by posting apportionment information on a public website as required by law.

This comes after we secured a permanent injunction on July 21 to allow the public to see the apportionment information that OMB has been illegally hiding since March. OMB has until August 15 to comply with the injunction according to the decision by the D.C. Circuit appeals panel.

On April 14, we filed suit against OMB for violating a law Congress passed on a bipartisan basis in 2022 requiring OMB to disclose apportionment information on a public website. On March 24, the OMB website went dark. A few days later, OMB Director Russell Vought made clear that OMB will no longer comply with the law.

In a statement running over 20 pages, Judge Henderson, joined by Judge Wilkins, laid out a historically grounded explanation for how the congressional mandate to publicly disclose apportionments falls well within Congress’s exercise of its power of the purse.

Restoration of this website could not have come at a more important time – over the last two weeks journalists have broken story after story of OMB holding back funds using apportionment footnotes – and once this website goes back online we should all have a chance to learn where else OMB has been holding up money that – under law – should be spent

Cerin Lindgrensavage, Counsel for protect democracy

“We welcome the D.C. Circuit’s resounding rejection of OMB’s defiance of the law and its strong reaffirmation that Congress and not the President holds the power of the purse. At a time when the Executive Branch is seeking to impound congressional appropriations and to hide how it is doing so, Judge Henderson’s concurring statement is a powerful reminder of why the Framers deemed it so critical to give Congress plenary authority over federal spending

Dan jacobson, founder of jacobson law group and litigation counsel for protect democracy

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