OMB Releases Memo on Legal Reasons to Withhold Ukraine Aid

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent a memorandum Wednesday to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explaining the legal foundations and reasons for holding up U.S. security assistance to Ukraine over the summer.

The Washington Post reported the existence of the memorandum and published it on Thursday morning; it was largely overlooked in in favor of the day’s lengthy impeachment debate in the House Judiciary Committee. Yet the memo fills in some of the factual gaps in the account of what happened.

In the memo to GAO, which works for Congress, the OMB begins by explaining that it often holds up funding to federal agencies in the regular course of business under its apportionment authority, often for reasons as mundane as making sure funding is being spent efficiently.

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