Funding for Rehabilitation Services and Special Programs Under Title I

GAO was asked to determine whether certain statutes are mandatory spending statutes subject to the fourth disclaimer of the Impoundment Control Act. The funds in question are for use in vocational rehabilitation services and related special programs under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The act authorizes appropriations for these programs through the current fiscal year, and it specifies the formulas by which the amounts appropriated are to be allocated to the eligible states. If the Secretary of Education determines that a plan meets the statutory criteria, he must approve it. The funding scheme established by the foregoing statutory provisions unambiguously manifests the intent of Congress that these are mandatory spending statutes. Accordingly, it is the GAO opinion that the Impoundment Control Act is not available to the executive branch for the purpose of withholding the funds in question in a manner that would be inconsistent with the statutory mandates. Therefore, GAO does not believe that the funds may be withheld once all conditions necessary to satisfy the statutory entitlements have been proposed for rescission in the President's eighth special message for fiscal year 1982.