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Most Americans have never heard the term “impoundment”—a process through which the president withholds federal money that Congress has already appropriated for a specific purpose. But for anyone following the events out of Washington recently, the term has been in the news frequently. In fact, the issue is potentially one that might produce a major constitutional crisis in the coming months. President Donald Trump has been hell-bent on using executive authority to cut as much federal spending as possible. He has already gone after a number of targets, ranging from the U.S. Agency for International Development to the National Institutes of Health.

During his campaign for the 2024 election, Trump made clear what he would do. He asserted “the president’s long-recognized impoundment power” and vowed to use it “to squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy for massive savings.”

Most Americans have never heard the term “impoundment”—a process through which the president withholds federal money that Congress has already appropriated for a specific purpose. But for anyone following the events out of Washington recently, the term has been in the news frequently. In fact, the issue is potentially one that might produce a major constitutional crisis in the coming months. President Donald Trump has been hell-bent on using executive authority to cut as much federal spending as possible. He has already gone after a number of targets, ranging from the U.S. Agency for International Development to the National Institutes of Health.

During his campaign for the 2024 election, Trump made clear what he would do. He asserted “the president’s long-recognized impoundment power” and vowed to use it “to squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy for massive savings.”

As a result of his early moves, federal courts have blocked his efforts and are currently examining whether some of his executive orders that “pause” congressionally appropriated money violate the laws regarding impoundment. With Trump determined to move forward with his plan—and administration officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance, openly attacking judges who dare to challenge them—this question could easily culminate in an epic clash, the kind that the nation has not seen since the early 1970s, when President Richard Nixon and a Democratic Congress faced off over this constitutional test of the imperial presidency.

At the center of the struggle is a law that came out of the Nixon years.........

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