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Background: In general, as I understand it, the US Treasury is currently making monthly subsidy payments to commercial insurers to the benefit of each qualified ACA marketplace enrollee.

Would cessation of these payments require Congressional action, or is there a process available to the President to unilaterally cause those payments to cease?

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    @pojo-guy, while true (the Congress controls the budget) the actual expenditure of funds is performed by Federal employees. Federal employees are under the direction of the executive, in this case the Sect'y of the Treasury and ultimately the President.
    – BobE
    Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 14:30

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The process is called Impountment or rescission. The exact mechanics and legality of it are questionable since the Congressional Budget and Impountment Control Act was passed in 1974. But that hasn't stopped all modern presidents from doing it in one way or another.

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  • The Act you cited seems to restrain the president from the ability to impound appropriated funds. "Title X of the act, and its interpretation under Train v. City of New York, essentially removed the power. The president's ability to indefinitely reject congressionally approved spending was thus removed."
    – BobE
    Commented Aug 28, 2017 at 2:38
  • @BobE right, but it still happens to varying degrees. Here are two examples I can think of: 1) President Bush did not expand the border wall despite a congressional act (and appropriations) requiring it; and 2) President Obama delayed enforcement of certain parts of the ACA despite congress appropriating funds to that enforcement.
    – jebar8
    Commented Aug 28, 2017 at 2:59
  • You seem to be agreeing that some other process can be invoked by the President to prevent the subsidy payments. That is the point of the original question - what process ?
    – BobE
    Commented Aug 28, 2017 at 15:21
  • The examples that you offer seem to be different in that (from what I think) is that subsidy payments have been made previously based on invoices submitted by the insurance companies to government. These are not discretionary expenses, they are actual obligations to the insurers based on actual claims that insurance companies paid out per the PPACA. Just so we are clear I'm asking specifically about the CSR subsidies and not about the premium subsidies (that are actually "promised" to the enrollees)
    – BobE
    Commented Aug 28, 2017 at 15:35

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