Government Ethics Group Sues Trump Administration for Hiding Federal Spending Information from the Public

Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group and CREW, sued the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and its Director Russell Vought for taking offline information that shows how OMB directs agencies to spend taxpayer money — information that OMB is required by law to post.

OMB controls agency spending through its “apportionment” of federal funds–that is, legally binding budget decisions about agency expenditures. In the Consolidated Appropriations Acts of 2022 and 2023, Congress required OMB to post on a public website information about OMB’s apportionments of federal spending. Since July 2022, OMB has posted that information publicly, as required by law.

Approximately two weeks ago, OMB took down the website, removing the apportionments database from public view. This move has denied CREW and the American public information that is critically important to keeping citizens informed about the activities of government officials and agencies and to ensuring transparency, ethics, and integrity in government.

“The Trump administration’s removal of information showing its apportionment of federal funds is blatantly illegal,” said Wendy Liu, attorney with Public CItizen Litigation Group and lead counsel on the case. “Taking down this information hides how the Trump administration is spending taxpayer dollars and harms the public’s ability to hold the administration accountable to the American people for its spending decisions.”

“The Trump administration’s illegal removal of the Office of Management and Budget’s apportionment website is yet another attempt to dodge transparency and accountability,” said Nikhel Sus, deputy chief counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “In the first Trump administration, OMB notoriously abused its apportionment authority to withhold federal funds and undermine Congress’s power of the purse. Without access to the apportionment website, CREW and other organizations cannot monitor for those kinds of abuses and inform the public when they occur. We urge the Court to order OMB to immediately restore this website and stop leaving the public in the dark about how the government spends taxpayer money.”

The full complaint is available here.