Court orders OMB to publish more info about how federal funding is distributed

A federal judge on Wednesday directed the Office of Management and Budget to publish certain information about how federal dollars are spent after a government watchdog nonprofit accused officials of contravening an earlier court order. 

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who was appointed to the position by President Bill Clinton, mandated that OMB post spend plans as part of a database with apportionments, which detail when appropriated agency funding becomes available. 

Trump administration officials in March took down the database but were forced to put it back up in August after a panel of U.S. Court of Appeals judges rejected their appeal. In September, however, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington alleged in a filing that OMB was not complying with the order by including footnotes that specified the apportionments were subject to nonpublic spend plans.  

The organization reported that at least 131 of the 2,245 apportionment documents approved between March 24 and Sept. 5 included undisclosed spend plans. 

On Wednesday, Sullivan sided with CREW. 

“OMB has incorporated-by-reference the terms of certain spend plans in legally binding footnotes. Since the terms of such spend plans contain legally binding limits on the agencies’ ability to obligate funds, the spend plans are ‘documents apportioning an appropriation,’ and must be made publicly available under [current law] and this court’s July 21, 2025, order,” he wrote. 

CREW celebrated the ruling in a Thursday fundraising email. 

“Vought and OMB leadership went out of their way to make it look like they were following the court's order to reveal spending decisions, while burying the real information the public needed in secretive spend plans,” said Donald Sherman, the organization’s president. “We will watch closely to make sure this order is followed.” 

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, also welcomed the decision. 

“[Vought’s] blatant disregard for the law clearly demonstrates that his OMB cannot be trusted, which is why this apportionment data must be made public,” she said in a statement. “Accountability is coming."

OMB did not respond to a request for comment. 

How congressionally approved funding is distributed has gotten more scrutiny due to impoundments, which is when the executive branch delays or withholds agency spending. Since the start of Trump’s second term, the Government Accountability Office, which reviews the legality of impoundments, has issued five decisions with violations, four without violations and two with mixed outcomes.