{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=230", "Grothman Seeks to Restore Power of the Purse to Congress", "2016-12-02", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Glenn Grothman", "G000576", "grothman.house.gov", "grothman", "https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "(Washington, D.C.) -- Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbeulah) yesterday questioned officials about the use of fines, fees, penalties and settlements to skirt Congress and fund agencies outside the appropriations process in a House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations hearing.\n\nExcerpts of Grothman\u2019s remarks:\n\n\u201cIt kind of surprises me the amount of funds that are going around that we probably don\u2019t even know the amount that\u2019s being spent. Can you make suggestions how [\u2026]Congress can start to see more clearly how funds are collected and spent, and what requirements we should put on that budget request?\u201d\n\n\u201cMr. Kosar, [\u2026] you mentioned the government collected $16 billion from the public last year, right? To what degree are these outside of the normal collection [dollars] included in that amount?\n\n\u201cIn other words when [agencies] have money coming in, even though that money is dedicated to a specific purpose, that\u2019s not necessarily apparent from their budget?\n\n\u201cYou know it never ceases to amaze me how screwed up the federal government is. I was a state legislator for 20 years. Washington is so much more screwed up than Madison, Wis. I can\u2019t believe it.\n\n\u201cAre there agencies with funding streams outside the appropriations process? Which agencies in particular do you think could give us more transparent budgets?\u201d\n\nClick here for Grothman\u2019s full remarks.\n\nBackground:\n\nEven though Congress is granted the power of the purse in the Constitution, federal agencies often engage in \u201cbackdoor spending\u201d \u2013 or the use of fines, fees, penalties and settlements to fund their operations and unappropriated programs.\n\nThis backdoor spending is an attempt to cut out Congress and allows agencies to act unilaterally with limited oversight.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T21:09:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=230"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 4.368017893284559, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}