A district court judge ruled that information showing how the Office of Management and Budget directs agencies to spend taxpayer money—which the Trump administration removed from the OMB website—must be restored for public access. 

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group and CREW, sued OMB and its Director Russell Vought in April over the removal of the website, known as the Public Apportionments Database, which contains information that OMB is required by law to post.

In its ruling, the court stated, “there is nothing unconstitutional about Congress requiring the Executive Branch to inform the public of how it is apportioning the public’s money. Defendants are therefore required to stop violating the law!” The court ordered OMB to restore the Public Apportionments Database and to make publicly available the apportionment information required to be disclosed, including the apportionment information from the time the database was taken offline.

“The law is clear that the federal government must make its appropriations decisions public,” said Adina Rosenbaum, Public Citizen Litigation Group attorney and counsel on the case. “So this case turned on a straightforward point: The administration must follow the law.”

“We applaud the court’s thorough and well-reasoned decision, which reaffirms Congress’s constitutional authority to require public disclosure of how taxpayer dollars are spent,” said Nikhel Sus, Deputy Chief Counsel at CREW. “Americans have a right to know how taxpayer money is being spent. Ensuring public access to this information serves as a critical check on the executive branch’s abuse and misuse of federal funds.”

Read the order here.
Read the opinion here.