Way harder than it should be: Why Congress may balk on $1.7B compensation fund

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had never appeared before a congressional panel asking for money to run his department until Tuesday morning.

And even though cabinet secretaries routinely make their budget requests to Congress, it appears that Blanche apparently didn’t even need to ask lawmakers for the most-controversial batch of federal funds in years. 

It was already approved. Somehow. 

Blanche’s Justice Department announced the creation of a billion compensation fund...