Official testifies 2 OMB staffers resigned after sharing concerns over Ukraine aid hold


Mark Sandy, a career official with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), told lawmakers earlier this month that two staffers resigned over the agency's handling of security aid to Ukraine, a transcript of his testimony released Tuesday shows.
Sandy appeared before House impeachment investigators on Nov. 16, becoming the first and so far only OMB employee to testify. President Trump's decision to hold $400 million in aid to Ukraine is at the center of the impeachment inquiry, with witnesses testifying that he did so for political reasons.
Sandy did not name the employees who voiced their concerns, only saying that one "expressed some frustrations about not understanding the reason for the hold" and the other had a "dissenting opinion" about the aid being frozen in relation to the Impoundment Control Act, which makes it illegal to withhold aid already approved by Congress.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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