Democrats are sounding the alarm over President Trump's move to freeze funding approved in two of President Biden's signature laws.

Trump issued an executive order pausing the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Democrats say Trump's order appears to violate a law called the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), which lays out limits on how much power a president has to restrict funding approved by Congress.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, bashed the measure this week as “illegally impounding” critical investments, while adding “uncertainty to every company, nonprofit organization, and state and local government that has any stake in either of those laws.”

Republicans, meanwhile, are dismissing the attacks, defending Trump’s moves as within his powers as president while also noting plans to yank back some of the funding anyway.

“Clearly, we're going to try to claw back funds there,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), a spending cardinal, told The Hill this week. “We made that very clear, and that's something we look at doing in budget reconciliation."

“For the president to pause that, I mean, he has executive authority, so he has some discretion in that realm,” he argued.

Part of the issue is that it’s not clear exactly what is included in Trump’s order. The laws fund a wide variety of matters, including tax........

© The Hill