WASHINGTON – Top Republicans and top Democrats on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee sent a joint letter to the Trump administration on Thursday, informing the Bureau of Management and Budget that it was on thin ice along with the panel.

The conflict relates to how the White House implements Congressional Suspension Expense Act Approved earlier this monthwill fund the federal government until the end of the fiscal year on September 30th.

Written by Chairman Susan Collins, R Maine, Rankings member Patty Murray and D-Wash. Two-page letter The way the OMB approaches the section on emergency designations is in contrast to how other administrations have implemented it.

“This (or substantially similar) language has been used in spending laws for decades. It has always been interpreted as giving the president a binary choice. He must agree to all or anyone of Congress’s emergency designations,” writes Collins and Murray. “He has no ability to choose which emergency spending to specify, so that the President does not have the power to veto on line items.

“This interpretation is consistent with the intentions of Congress and is the most logical and consistent reading of the law.”

They raised questions about whether the Trump administration’s new “fragmented approach” could allow emergency funds, including $8 billion in housing assistance, to congressional intent.

Collins and Murray appeared to imply that the OMB’s failure to amend the emergency designation course would burden the cooperation between the Approximate Budget Committee and the Trump administration.

The two will need to work together in the last few months of last week to draft dozens of spending bills for fiscal year 2026. This is scheduled to start on October 1st.

“We are concerned that sudden changes to the interpretation of OMB’s long-standing statutory provisions could destroy the expenditure process and make it more difficult for the Budget Committee to work in collaboration with the administration to improve priorities on behalf of the American people,” they write. “The collaboration becomes even more challenging when the committee first informs us of such developments, rather than being notified through official channels, as in here.”

Last updated at 4:29pm, March 27, 2025