Trump Controls Purse Strings to Enforce Comstock Act

Donald Trump has tried a new escalation to pass the “Comstock Act 2.0”, named after a long-dormant 19th-century law. In clear horse trading, he’s refusing to fund programs Congress has earmarked in its budget until they pass laws that strengthen the Comstock Act. The Comstock Act was originally passed in 1873. It bans mailing “obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile articles,” including abortion-inducing medications, according to recent interpretations. Trump is proposing an even more expansive bill.

Up until now, lower courts have been wary of setting public policy on abortion and have denied attempts to expand the Comstock Act to include drugs used in abortion procedures. To force Congress’s hand, Trump claims the Impoundment Control Act does not apply to him. The Impoundment Control Act was enacted in 1974 after President Nixon refused to spend money on projects Congress had authorized. Without it, the President would effectively gain the right to ignore congressional budgets and spend the federal budget completely at his own discretion.

The moves caused private resistance among Republicans in Washington. “Trump can’t help himself — he just wants power,” said one Republican senator, who noted that he agrees with Trump on defunding liberal priorities like the EPA and election security. But he railed against “too much Presidential authority.” Experts say that Trump’s maneuver won’t stand up in court — but they note that it’s likely that many of Congress’s priorities will be unfunded until the courts step in. Trump has targeted EPA, election security, and other liberal priorities.

Democrats introduced an alternative bill, which has little chance of passing, that would fully fund departments like the EPA to levels during the Biden administration. “Citizen scientists are volunteering doing the work of EPA because Trump’s moving to completely defund it. We’ve got people doing fundraisers for our election systems and roads and Trump is just finding new ways to take it all away.”