Monitoring democratic institutions through public records
Keeping Politics Out of Government — Week of Jun 29, 2026
Government workers should serve all Americans, not just one political party. The Hatch Act is a law that stops them from campaigning while at work.
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On June 29, 2026, Rep. Jamie Raskin introduced an amendment in the House called the "NO CARTE BLANCHE Act of 2026" that would block taxpayer money from being used to pay a settlement reached in May 2026 in a lawsuit called Trump v. IRS. According to the legislative text, a federal court in Florida approved a settlement on May 18, 2026, that created a compensation fund — paid with federal dollars — benefiting the President or people connected to the President. The bill would ban such payments and create new rules requiring congressional notification and judicial anti-collusion findings before any future settlements could pay government officials.
This might matter because laws like the Hatch Act and broader government ethics rules exist to prevent taxpayer resources from being used for personal or political benefit. If the executive branch used the Treasury's Judgment Fund — which doesn't require Congress to approve spending — to settle a lawsuit in a way that financially benefits the sitting President, that could undermine the principle that government serves all Americans equally, not those in power.
There are important alternative explanations to consider. Most likely, the underlying lawsuit may have involved real legal claims where the government was genuinely at fault, and settling was a reasonable resolution regardless of who the plaintiff was. Presidents are not barred from having legitimate legal disputes with federal agencies. Additionally, this amendment comes from a member of the opposing party and carries a rhetorically charged title, suggesting it may serve partly as political commentary rather than a response to a confirmed abuse. Without seeing the actual settlement terms or court record, it's not possible to determine whether the settlement was improper.
Limitations: This analysis is based solely on the text of a proposed congressional amendment. The actual settlement agreement and court filings are not available, so no conclusion can be drawn about whether the settlement was inappropriate. Only four documents were reviewed this week, and the two flagged items contain identical text, so this reflects a single event rather than a broader trend.