OMB Director Russ Vought testifies before the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs on January 15, 2025 (screenshots from the committee’s webcast)

WASHINGTON – A nonprofit filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, claiming that the decision to stop posting budget documents in late March violated federal law.

The Protect Democracy Project case is the second lawsuit challenging management and budget choices to lower web pages with allocation information detailing when and how Congress has allocated it.

The case, similar to that brought by citizens last week in Washington for liability and ethics, is asking federal judges to ask OMB to restore websites that have been sharing data publicly for many years.

OMB Director Russ Vault told Congress last month that the Budget Office would no longer post allocation information publicly, and in order to do so, he wrote in a letter disclosing “sensitive, positive, deliberative information.”

“This kind of disclosure will have a calm impact on deliberations within the administrative department,” writes Vought. “In fact, these disclosure clauses have already had a negative effect on Candors included in communications with OMB bodies, and have undermined the effectiveness of OMBs in regulatory expenditures.

“In addition, allocations may contain sensitive information, and automatic public disclosures can pose a risk to national security and foreign policy.”

“Brave movements”

Congressional Democrats criticized the decision, calling for several people to investigate the government’s Office of Accountability, the watchdog.

D-Conn, a ranking member of the House Budget Committee. and D-Wash, a ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Patty Murray of the company issued a joint statement in late March.

“Congress has enacted these requirements on a bipartisan basis for the Democratic president’s opposition because our members and all American taxpayers deserve transparency and accountability about how money is being spent,” writes Delauro and Murray. “It’s not only illegal to remove this website, it’s a brave move to hide this administration’s spending from Americans and Congress.”

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and Pennsylvania Sen. Brendan Boyle, the top Democrats on the Budget Committee, have urged the government’s Office of Accountability to look into the issue.

GAO Legal Counsel Edda Emmanuelli Perez letter Earlier this month, OMB’s decision to publicly share allocation information was “very concerned.”

“We understand that OMB has adopted the position that it requires prior deliberative disclosure of information,” he writes. “We don’t agree.”

Perez rejected OMB’s claim that if the allocation was automatically disclosed, it could contain sensitive information that could pose a risk to national security and foreign policy, and therefore all information should be removed.

“There may be sensitive information when published, but it is not certain that all distribution data meets that standard,” he writes. “If there is such sensitive data that should be protected from public disclosure, they are exceptions and should not help to delete the entire database.”

The lawsuit wants to restore public information

Two lawsuits – Washington vs. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics of the Office of Management and Budget and Protect the Democracy Project v. – Ask a federal judge to request OMB to post information online again online.

The crew wrote That submission The OMB posted a public version of its database in July 2022 after demanding that Congress do it with the government funding bill.

The Trump administration deleted the webpage on March 24, but “did not provide notice or explanation prior to deletion,” according to the lawsuit.

The crew case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and assigned to Judge Emmett G. Sullivan, appointed former President Bill Clinton.

Protecting democratic projects I wrote about that lawsuit “A law that requires transparency for allocation makes it more difficult for administrative agencies to illegally impose funds outside the views of the Congress and the people.”

The Trump administration faces numerous lawsuits stemming from efforts to block several departments and agencies from storing money allocated in Congress.

The 1974 Water Storage Control Act prohibits the enforcement department from holding money instead of using it as Congress had directed. However, Vought has said several times that he believes the law is unconstitutional.

The Democracy Project’s protection lawsuit was also filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, but as of Monday afternoon, it had not been assigned to a judge.