Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Law
Disappropriation, Matthew Lawrence
Disappropriation, Matthew Lawrence
Matthew B. Lawrence
In recent years Congress has repeatedly failed to appropriate funds necessary to honor legal commitments (aka entitlements) that are themselves enacted in permanent law. The Appropriations Clause has forced the government to defy legislative command and break such commitments, with destructive results for recipients and the rule of law. This Article is the first to address this poorly-understood phenomenon, which it labels a form of “disappropriation.”
The Article theorizes recent high-profile disappropriations as one probabilistic consequence of Congress’s decision to create permanent legislative payment commitments that the government cannot honor without periodic, temporary appropriations. Such partially-temporary programs include Medicaid and …