INVISIBLE ENTITLEMENTS: $510 BILLION IN UNAUTHORIZED FY 2023 FEDERAL SPENDING

With $21.7 billion Sent Abroad Without Legal Authorization; Government Must Answer by August 15, in First Taxpayer Appropriations-Clause Challenge in Over 50 Years.

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- "In FY 2023, Congress quietly funneled $21.7 billion into the Economic Support Fund (ESF) whose authorization statute expired in 1987, part of a $510 billion bundle of illegal appropriations," said Scott M. Alexander, former Mayor and pro se plaintiff. "This lawsuit forces a reckoning with 2023 violations through the courts."

In March 2025, Alexander filed suit on behalf of taxpayers, challenging the FY 2023 federal appropriation to expired ESF, marking the first modern federal court test of unauthorized spending under the Appropriations Clause in more than 50 years.

News in Numbers:

• Filed in DCC: March 24, 2025 (Case No. 1:25-cv-00934-APM). Download Complaint
  
  
• Status: First taxpayer Appropriations-Clause challenge in over 50 years
  
  
• Standing: Unopposed, affirmed by uncontested motion
  
  
• Answer Due: August 15, 2025
  
  
• Class Size: ≈81 million FY 2023 federal-tax filers

FY 2023 Illegal Appropriations: View Data

• $21.7 billion ESF (authorization statute expired 9/30/1987).
  
  
• $510 billion across 428 expired statute programs.
  
  
• Billions more in CBO "unidentifiable", and unlimited term programs.

Why It Matters

• Checks & Balances: Holds Congress and the Executive accountable by enforcing the Appropriations Clause (Art. I, § 9, cl. 7) and Anti-Deficiency Act (31 U.S.C. § 1341).
  
  
• Taxpayer Remedies: Seeks 0.4903% restitution of each filer's 2023 liability, ≈$131 out of taxpayers' paychecks going illegally overseas for ESF.
  
  
• Historic Precedent: First modern court test of unauthorized federal spending in over 50 years, with unopposed taxpayer standing, securing path to enforce accountability.

Relief Sought for FY 2023 Injuries:

1. Declaratory Judgment declaring all FY 2023 unauthorized outlays are unconstitutional.
   
   
2. Injunctive Relief barring further spending under expired authorizations.
   
   
3. Monetary Restitution refunding 0.4903 percent of each FY 2023 filer's liability for ESF spend.
   
   
4. Accountability Framework: "Government Cases," quarterly reporting, API-driven public access.

Next Steps

• Immediately secure skilled class counsel to champion the rights of ~81 million taxpayers in this groundbreaking challenge to unauthorized federal spending.
• Media Coverage: Defendants' answer due August 15, a key deadline for public awareness.

"No authorization. No oversight. $21.7 billion sent through invisible entitlement, and another $488 billion just like it, that's the story," Alexander said. "Now the courts must intervene to stop the next wave."

Media/Class Counsel Inquiries:
Scott Alexander View Image
[email protected]
X: @scot_alexander_

SOURCE Scott M. Alexander, plaintiff