Some GOPers Are Queasy About Trump Lawlessly Moving Money Around During Shutdown

This is your TPM evening briefing.

Nicole Lafond

Emine Yücel

, and

Layla A. Jones

Oct 21, 2025

*WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 04: Chair Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Full Committee Chair Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) speak on June 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)*

President Trump and White House officials have been picking and choosing what programs to fund while the federal government is shut down — and they’re doing it without permission from Congress.

A bipartisan handful of lawmakers aren’t happy.

Here’s how the cycle has gone in recent weeks: The White House and Republican lawmakers will engage in public hand-wringing about the troops not getting paid or mothers on WIC losing access to the supplemental nutrition program. The Trump White House then, days later, decides that it’s going to pull some funding from supposed tariff revenue to fund WIC, or from some unspent pocket of Pentagon research to cover the paychecks of active duty service members. Most of the public outcry over troops not getting paid or low-income families not getting their WIC or SNAP benefits has been used as a cudgel to attack Democrats and blame them for the shutdown (which ignores the fact that Republicans could easily earn their votes to reopen the government if they engaged with Dems’ requests to extend Obamacare subsidies set to expire in December).

The White House has also been politically selective about what programs they’re using to attack Dems, and which they’re quietly keeping funded, too. Last week, for example, it was reported that the White House planned to find a way to continue paying Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents throughout the shutdown, despite funding lapses. Trump reportedly plans to continue lawlessly moving money around to cover military paychecks if the government doesn’t reopen by the end of the month, according to Politico.

This is all unlawful. The White House is supposed to seek approval from Congress and follow a process called “reprogramming” in order to legally shift funds that have been appropriated by Congress around within an account. That has, of course, not happened, per Politico:

Trump administration officials have not provided top congressional appropriators with details about how much cash the White House believes is available for use, nor have they submitted requests to Capitol Hill to reprogram any money.

“Look, I want the troops to be paid,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) told Politico. “But, as usual, they find the most illegal way to do everything.”

Schatz’s Republican colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee are also expressing legal concerns about how the White House is shuffling money around during the shutdown.

“While it’s a desired outcome, there’s a process that’s required — by Constitution and by law — for Congress to be not only consulted but engaged,” Jerry Moran (R-KS), the committe’e’s senior member, said. Both Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have made similar remarks.

While it is significant that a few Republicans are at least vocalizing that something about how the Trump administration is handling the shutdown is maybe probably perhaps not legal, it’s unlikely to change anything. This is, after all, the same Republican conference that rubber-stamped, without question, cuts from Elon Musk’s lawless DOGE rampage through the federal government earlier this year.

— Nicole LaFond

Happy 25th TPM

TPM’s 25th anniversary is coming up and there are still tickets available to join us for the festivities! TPM will host a live recording of the Josh Marshall Podcast Featuring Kate Riga in New York City. Earlier in the night, I will be co-moderating a panel discussion of the past 25 years of political news and TPM’s role in it, featuring TPM alums, myself and TPM editors John Light and David Kurtz 🙂

The events will take place at the Metrograph Theater in Manhattan on Thursday 11/6, and then we are having a party at Bogart House in Brooklyn on Friday 11/7.

All my loyal WTS readers can get 33% OFF ticket prices using discount code WTS at this link. Hope to see you there!

— Nicole LaFond

Vulnerable House GOPers Press Johnson to Focus on Expiring Obamacare Subsidies

Thirteen vulnerable House Republicans called on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Tuesday to “immediately turn our focus to the growing crisis of healthcare affordability and the looming expiration of the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits” once the shutdown ends.

In a letter addressed to Johnson the group of Republicans warned him that “millions of Americans are facing drastic premium increases“ as a result of the Obamacare subsidies expiring at the end of the year.

While the letter blamed Democrats for the situation at hand and condemned them for leveraging government funding talks to extend the credit, they urged Johnson to help the party “chart a conservative path” forward on the credits.

“Allowing these tax credits to lapse without a clear path forward would risk real harm to those we represent. Nevertheless, we must chart a conservative path that protects working families in our districts across the country who rely on these credits,” the letter said.

Congressional Democrats, of course, have been asking Republicans to work with them on extending the subsidies for weeks now, while GOP leaders have refused.

— Emine Yücel

Shutdown Exposes Risks of Relying on Private Economic Data

Trump-appointed Fed governor Christopher Waller disclosed in an August speech that ADP provides the Fed with weekly payroll numbers that cover “about 20% of the nation’s private workforce” and suggested the report is different from, though “comparable to,” the report ADP publishes widely. The disclosure of the exclusive relationship apparently upset decisionmakers at the private economic data company and led them to halt their relationship with the central bank, according to reporting from The American Prospect. Fed Chair Jerome Powell then reportedly wrote a letter to ADP, asking the company to resume sharing the payroll figures.

Per The American Prospect:

[T]he letter from Powell, which has not been publicly reported, suggests that ADP was unhappy about the disclosure of the collaboration, perhaps because its other clients didn’t know about it, and put it on hold. Powell, according to those who have seen the letter, asked for ADP to resume the collaboration. There was a “whiff of desperation” in the letter, one source explained, with Powell indicating that the data was sorely needed.

The central bank uses the information to help ascertain the state of the economy and establish policy about inflation and employment, an especially important function at the moment, given the public data blackout caused by the government shutdown and Trump’s other efforts to exert influence over government statistics. The Fed is set to announce its decision about further lowering interest rates at a meeting next week.

ADP’s ability and apparent willingness to discontinue a data-sharing relationship with the Fed highlights the risks of relying on private companies and data as replacements for public statistics agencies, which have long been underfunded and have come under attack by the president.

— Layla A. Jones