Trump administration restores public spending data after legal fight

Source: The Hill

08/18/25 7:18 PM ET


The Trump administration restored a public database that showed how funding is apportioned to federal agencies following a recent order by a federal appeals court. Public access to the data was restored over the weekend, not long after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the website be restored in a unanimous ruling.

“To hear the Government tell it, the separation of powers hangs in the balance and only this Court can set things right. But when it comes to appropriations, our Constitution has made plain that congressional power is at its zenith,” U.S. Circuit Judge Karen Henderson wrote last week.

Under the apportionments process, agencies are given limited authority to spend funding allocated by Congress in installments. Congress required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to implement an “automated system to post each document apportioning an appropriation” as part of a legislative funding deal signed into law in 2022. The office was also ordered to “operate and maintain” the automated system for “fiscal year 2023 and each fiscal year thereafter” in another funding bill that also became law that year.

But the website went dark earlier this year after the Trump administration said it could not continue to operate the system, arguing it contained sensitive information that could pose a threat to national security. Advocates have hailed the return of the tracker as a major win for transparency, as the administration has faced legal challenges in recent months over efforts to freeze funding already allocated by Congress.

Read more: https://thehill.com/business/budget/5458694-trump-administration-restores-public-database/