Cerin Lindgrensavage
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Articles by Cerin Lindgrensavage
Big win for elections *and* national security
Earlier today, a federal court struck down the Trump administration’s illegal attempt to use anti-terrorism funds to coerce state and local governments into changing their election rules. This important (and timely) win helps ensure communities don’t have to choose between the safety of their residents and the health of our democracy.
Trump TV is propaganda — and a crime
Source: @WhiteHouse X account Yesterday the White House created a state-run streaming service named after our president, Trump TV. So far, the entertainment value appears to be limited (it’s mostly just reruns of old Trump speeches). Even so, it comes just days after the president banned several prominent news outlets from the White House. Trump TV is part of a much larger effort by the White House to distort public perception, bias content, and generally spread propaganda.
Congress rejected some of Trump’s proposed budget cuts. OMB is making them anyway. Original
For centuries, kings embroiled England in numerous wars on the European continent, largely without consulting Parliament in advance. Monarchs could do this because they alone had the power both to command the armies and to pay them. This bitter experience convinced our nation’s Founders of the importance of giving Congress, not the president, the power of the purse.
Breaking Down OMB’s Growing Use of Category C
Since January 2025, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has led an aggressive campaign to withhold federal funds from agencies and programs the Trump administration disfavors. Central to this effort has been OMB’s vigorous use—and at times abuse—of its authority under the Antideficiency Act to apportion the funds Congress appropriates.
This is what it looks like when OMB kills your program
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought attends the National Governors Association dinner at the White House, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert) You may have noticed: There are a lot fewer news stories about the Trump administration dramatically killing federal programs these days.
Who broke the appropriations process?
If Congress doesn’t pass a funding bill by midnight tonight, the government is going to shut down. In the past, shutdowns have been a blame game, with various actors across the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives pointing the finger at each other. By definition, when different parties fail to reach an agreement there’s at least some responsibility to go around.
Past Pocket Rescissions Are Not Precedents for Power Vought Claims
Published by The Lawfare Institute in Cooperation With This summer, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought said he intends to try to permanently cut federal funding without first getting approval from Congress by deploying a tactic he calls a “pocket rescission.” Vought’s assertion that the president may “pocket rescind” funds—that is, impound and cause to expire forever—rests on a theory that OMB advanced, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) rejected, in 2018.
How did ICE break the bank?
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is, by one estimate, on track to be $1 billion over budget. And with more than three months left in the fiscal year, the agency is preparing to come hat in hand to Congress asking for more. This Wednesday, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought will appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee. At that hearing, senators should grill him on this apparent overspending.
Russ Vought’s Article I takeover
Whether they like it or not, Congress may not have control over the budget anymore... Why? Because Russ Vought — the Trump Administration’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) — is angling to take over their job of deciding what programs get funded by the federal government and how much money they get. For centuries, Congress has held the power of the purse.
How to Fix America's Broken Electoral System
Ideas By Cerin Lindgrensavage November 10, 2024 7:00 AM EST Cerin Lindgrensavage is a counsel at Protect Democracy, where she leads the team advocating for proportional electoral reforms at the state level. The high stakes U.S. election this week is on track to match the record 66% turnout set four years ago, and surpass the routinely lower midterm election turnout that peaked at 49% in 2018.
Opinion | One Real Step Toward Transforming Congress Original
The good news is making this fix is constitutionally quite simple because the House is in charge of its own rules and can vote to change them. Johnson has already said that he expects that the House will change the motion to vacate next year, when a new Congress gavels in following the 2024 election, but there’s no real reason lawmakers have to wait until the current session is over. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) walks to a vote at the U.S. Capitol, on March 22, 2024.
When it comes to reforming the House of Representatives, it’s time to think bigger Original
Recently, Professor Danielle Allen has written a series of columns exploring what would happen if we increased the size of the House of Representatives. After years of postponing the necessary maintenance, Allen asks us to consider our Founding Fathers’ vision of the People’s House as a body that would grow with the population of the country it represents. Could increasing the size of the House help unlock Congress’s potential and “get our politics working again”?
Federal government getting ready to open its books and show us the receipts
As members of Congress and staff dig into President Biden’s 2023 budget request, they have a new tool for tracking when, where, and how the president is authorizing federal agencies to spend money — but Congress, and the public, needs to know this new tool exists. It comes in the form of apportionment transparency, an instrument designed to reinforce Congress’s power of the purse.
Congress needs to reform the Vacancies Act to keep the business of government on stable footing
Each decision the federal government makes — launching new programs, issuing contracts, and creating regulations — has ripple effects, impacting thousands of businesses and driving billions of dollars in economic activity. If those policies are cancelled or reversed, the businesses who hustled to comply are left out on a limb. And a weakness in federal law governing the appointment of government officials makes these disruptive reversals more likely.
OPINION: Now's the time for a cross-partisan push to prevent future abuses of presidential power
Some of the proposals in PODA respond directly to vulnerabilities in presidential power exploited by the Trump administration, according to Dayton and Lindgrensavage. Dayton is a policy advocate and Lindgrensavage is a counsel at Protect Democracy, a nonprofit group advocating for policies that "prevent our democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government." Dayton once worked for a GOP House member and Lindgrensavage for a Democratic senator.
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