John,
President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget tried to hide how it was allocating taxpayer money, but now thanks to our win in court last week, it brought back a funding database over the weekend—and with it, a key measure of public accountability.
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump administration’s attempt to pause the lower court’s ruling in our favor case, deciding that allowing OMB to keep funding decisions secret would be contrary to federal law and America’s founding ideals.
OMB is now publishing the database. The court stood up for the separation of powers and sent the strong message that following the law is NOT optional.
If you support CREW’s bold legal work to demand accountability from the Trump administration, please consider making a donation to power our fight today!→
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your tax deductible donation will go through immediately to ActBlue Charities Inc. and be disbursed to CREW within 30 days:
You can read more about the case we brought with Public Citizen below. Thank you for being a part of our fight for a democracy that works for the people, not just the powerful.
CREW HQ
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John, I know there’s been a lot of bad news out there lately, but I wanted to let you know that we just got a pretty big win against the Trump administration!
Back in March, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and its director, Russell Vought, removed the “apportionments” database, a public database of government spending required by law to be online. I know it sounds technical, but this is actually a pretty big deal for knowing what the government is up to and being able to push back on abuses.
CREW and our friends at Public Citizen sued in response, demanding that OMB restore the website. Two courts have now ruled in our favor—the District of Columbia District Court and, most recently, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled over the weekend that OMB needs to bring back the website by Friday.
The database is a crucial tool for government transparency. Removing the website robbed the public of information about how the government is spending taxpayer dollars. That means that CREW and other organizations have been unable to monitor potential abuses by OMB and inform the public when they occur. The administration set the stage to do what it wanted, out of public view.
On August 9th, the appeals court denied OMB’s request to pause the lower court’s order, which required OMB to restore the website. So now, OMB must do so by August 15.
This decision is a major win for transparency and a critical step in ensuring that the Trump administration cannot ignore Congress's constitutional authority. Please join us in this fight and donate today to support our work of holding Trump accountable →
CREW is committed to continuing to fight for your right to know how your taxpayer money is spent—and we don’t anticipate that this is the end of the road in this case.
The fight for transparency and accountability is far from over. The Trump administration has been throwing everything it has at this case so that it can continue to run roughshod over federal funding decisions, and do so in secret.
Your support is critical to ensuring we can continue to win important fights like these, hold those in power accountable and protect our democracy.
Your support is more important now than ever. We cannot back down from the fight for transparency and accountability especially in the face of blatant attempts to undermine the separation of powers. The law is on our side, but we need your help. Donate today to keep this vital momentum going and keep the wins coming!→
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your tax deductible donation will go through immediately to ActBlue Charities Inc. and be disbursed to CREW within 30 days:
Thank you,
Noah Bookbinder
President
CREW
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