Skip to main content

PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Politics & government fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about politics & government. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

12,754 published reviews in this topic

PolitiFactPolitics & government

The Impoundment Control Act “limits the circumstances under which a president can legally impound Congressionally-appropriated funds.”

Publisher’s rating: Nixon-era law says that

Related reporting directly addresses how the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) constrains presidential impoundment. It says Congress enacted the law in response to President Richard Nixon’s withholding of appropriated funds, and describes two procedures: deferrals and rescissions. Under the account, a rescission requires affirmative congressional approval within 45 days; otherwise, the funds must be released. That description supports the claim that the Act limits when a president can withhold congressionally appropriated money. The excerpt also supplies an important qualification: it says the Trump administration has argued that the ICA is unconstitutional, while noting that the Supreme Court had not yet resolved that argument and that lower courts had upheld the Act. The reporting therefore describes the Act’s statutory limits and the existence of a constitutional challenge; it does not establish that every application of the Act is uncontested. The supplied excerpts do not include the original PolitiFact review or its checking methodology.