The administration's argument is that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional, i.e. Congress has the power to prevent the executive from doing something by not funding it, but not the power to force the executive to do something just by appropriating money for it.
But the administration objects to USAID, not cancer research, so what's stopping them from issuing the cancer research grants to other institutions? Nothing, right?
You’ve written something like five comments implying they’re moving the money. They’re not. Then you say they could move the money. In fact they can’t because the research teams and labs to do this work just don’t exist in other places, and it would take years to rebuild them there even if the money was being sent somewhere else. But even if they could re-allocate the funds somewhere else, they’re not doing that. The money is just piling up and being unspent. You seem very determined to find some explanation for this that isn’t as terrible as the actual reality, and I’m sympathetic! But there isn’t one. It’s just a disaster in every sense.
> the administration objects to USAID, not cancer research
Are you sure about that?
This administration's HHS Secretary has deep doubts about the efficacy of the scientific method, which underpins all of medical research in general and cancer research in particular. It seem more likely to me that the money impounded from cancer research will instead be redirected to organizations that use non-scientific methods to study the effects of nutritional supplements, water flouridation, and non-ionizing 5G radiation.
The administration's argument is that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional, i.e. Congress has the power to prevent the executive from doing something by not funding it, but not the power to force the executive to do something just by appropriating money for it.
But the administration objects to USAID, not cancer research, so what's stopping them from issuing the cancer research grants to other institutions? Nothing, right?