President Donald Trump defied the intent of Congress with his recent executive order targeting the Wilson Center and five other federal agencies for which lawmakers had crafted legally binding charters and then allocated funds the White House was required to spend, legal experts and sources said.
In a fundraising email sent Monday, Wilson Center head Mark Green, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin, wrote that his organization had been given a “special charter” in 1968 when lawmakers created the think tank named after the 28th president. Though representatives for the Wilson Center declined to comment for this article, legal experts said all federal entities created by Congress essentially have special charters because only the legislative branch can establish and close them.
Lawmakers, for decades, have used their authority to create all kinds of federal entities to perform a wide range of functions deemed in the country’s interests — and have backed up those organizations’ charters with annual funding under their constitutionally granted power of the purse. Legal experts and sources said that was why they expect federal judges to block Trump’s late Friday order targeting the Wilson Center and the other agencies.
