WASHINGTON — Congress has used a clause in the Constitution for more than two centuries to control how the federal government spends funds, but the Supreme Court is poised to decide whether that same language also limits what lawmakers can do.
The justices agreed last month to hear a case about the way Congress funded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when it created the independent agency in response to the 2008 financial crisis. The agency’s survival is at risk in the case, which the Supreme Court will likely decide in their next term starting in October.
At the core of the case is the Appropriations Clause, which prohibits government spending “but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” Experts consider that exclusive “power of the purse” as a core part of the Constitution’s separation of powers because the legislature is a check on how a president can spend funds.
