DeGette, Matsui, Beyer Statement on Illegal Impoundment of Health Research Funds

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Representatives Diana DeGette (CO-01), Doris Matsui (CA-07), and Don Beyer (VA-08) released the following statement after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a legal determination (link is external)confirming the administration illegally impounded $78 million in Fiscal Year 2025 funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The decision comes more than a year after Reps. DeGette, Matsui and Beyer sent the initial request for a nonpartisan legal opinion on the matter.

"The GAO's decision today confirms what we have known for over a year: Donald Trump is stealing taxpayers' dollars that Congress set aside to improve Americans' health. The administration's unilateral dismantling of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's grantmaking operations is an illegal impoundment of Congressionally appropriated funds.

"Under Article I of the Constitution, the power of the purse rests strictly with Congress, not the executive branch. Trump's administration cannot simply refuse to spend the resources we authorized for lifesaving health care research. Republicans must join Democrats in demanding that the Constitution is upheld."

Background:

The Trump administration's massive cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services beginning April 1, 2025, disrupted grant funding for health care research across the country, including in Colorado. AHRQ suffered particularly devastating impacts to its grants supporting more efficient, effective, and safe health care. Grantmaking at AHRQ halted: from April 1 to September 5, 2025, AHRQ did not issue a single grant. The agency would typically issue up to 73 grants during a comparable time period.

In September 2025, Representatives DeGette, Matsui and Beyer sent a request to GAO for their legal opinion on whether disruptions of AHRQ's grantmaking process represented illegal withholding of funds in violation of the Impoundment Control Act, which regulates the president's ability to delay or withhold Congressionally appropriated spending. The GAO is often called the "Congressional watchdog" for its role in investigating federal government spending and performance.

Today, after a lengthy nonpartisan investigation, the GAO announced its findings that the Trump administration did illegally withhold-or impound-$78 million Congress directed to support healthcare research.

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