Trump administration uses rare authority to claw back nearly $1B in spending approved by Congress
The White House announced Friday that President Donald Trump is canceling nearly $1 billion in spending approved by Congress, using a rare and contested power to cut funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives. Trump's Office of Management and Budget framed the cuts as targeting "the most harmful government spending." Most of the rescissions focus on Health and Human Services programs serving refugees and unaccompanied minors accused of being in the country illegally; the administration argues the funds are no longer necessary because illegal border crossings have diminished considerably.
Other targets include a Department of Education program for migrant students, a Department of Justice office focused on reducing racial tensions, a business development initiative for minority entrepreneurs, housing counseling services from HUD, and HHS grants the administration called "outright harmful and blatantly ideological." A White House press release noted that some of the affected organizations are led by people who worked in the Obama administration.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senator in a tough reelection campaign, condemned the action, saying it came without warning or consultation and that she would work with colleagues to address "these illegal actions." "Not only is the delay itself an impoundment that was not reported to Congress, but also it is a usurpation of Congress's appropriations powers," Collins said. "OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding." Under federal law, Congress has 45 days to review a president's proposed spending cuts before they take effect, but the administration announced them with just five days left in the federal fiscal year and the House out of session through the November election, making review all but impossible. The Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress, says the maneuver known as a "pocket rescission" is illegal.
Collins called it the latest attempt by OMB to "undermine Congress's Constitutional power of the purse." A year ago, Trump issued a pocket rescission for the first time in nearly 50 years by blocking $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid; the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block those rescissions, saying Trump's authority over foreign affairs weighed heavily in its decision. This year, Trump is targeting domestic spending, and the pocket rescission fits a broader pattern by the Trump administration to exert greater control over the U.S. government and erode Congress's power. The excerpt notes that what was essentially the last pocket rescission occurred in 1977, when Democratic President Jimmy Carter rescinded it.