The Democratic-led House of Representatives could mount a legal challenge, too, by voting to file a lawsuit challenging some agency actions taken during the shutdown as Antideficiency Act violations.
“If I were on the Supreme Court, I’d be sympathetic to that -- to say we need an enforcement mechanism” for the Antideficiency Act, Kopel said. “It’s conceivable, and if the House voted to do it, I’d say they’ve got a fighting chance.”
Even without taking that step, Democrats in Congress have indicated they will closely scrutinize spending amid the shutdown. Representative Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who heads the Natural Resource Committee, is already encouraging employees to blow the whistle on possible Antideficiency Act violations.
“Career civil servants should not be used as pawns in the administration’s illegal attempts to disguise the very real, very serious impacts of the shutdown the president caused,” Grijalva said. “This is no way to run a government.”
This article provided by Bloomberg News.