John,

CREW just won a major legal victory:

A federal judge has once again shut down efforts by the Trump administration to keep its spending plans secret.

We filed a lawsuit last spring to force Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and OMB to be more transparent and bring back a website that showed how the government is spending taxpayer money. A couple of months ago, OMB posted thousands of apportionments it had approved since its abrupt removal of the legally required database—because of a previous court order in our case.

But in many cases, it still secretly controlled agency spending through legally binding “spend plans” buried in footnotes and hidden from the public.

So we filed a “motion to enforce,” asking the district court to require that OMB make public the contents of those spend plans that included hidden conditions on spending and rules for apportioned funds. A federal judge just granted that request.

John, this is a major win—not just for CREW, but for transparency itself. Vought and the OMB tried to dodge accountability and keep the American people in the dark—but we refused to let them. CREW will always stand up, demand answers, and expose when the government tries to hide its actions. Your support makes this possible. Chip in today to help CREW continue holding our government accountable →

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Between March and September, OMB approved at least 131 apportionment documents that included hidden rules in their incorporated spending plans.

These plans, which contained legally binding terms for how the money could be spent, were not made public.

John, that means anyone relying on the publicly posted “apportioned” amounts had no way of knowing whether those numbers were accurate, because the real rules and limits were kept secret.

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.

CREW asked the court to step in again and force OMB to release everything: the numbers, the terms and the spending plans. Yesterday, the court did just that.

We will watch closely to make sure this order is followed.

The more they try to evade the law, the harder we're going to fight to bring their cuts and spending priorities into the light.

CREW will always take action to ensure Americans know exactly how their government is spending—or not spending—their tax dollars. Stand with us in the fights ahead to hold this administration for the law and for the public’s right to know. Donate to CREW today →