President Donald Trump is unilaterally trying to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid, and his attempt is throwing yet another wrench into government funding negotiations that need to be settled by Sept. 30.
Trump announced the funding cancellation Thursday night through a process called a “pocket rescission,” which was suggested by Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, earlier this year. The Government Accountability Office previously deemed pocket rescissions illegal, as Congress is supposed to be the only branch that can appropriate or administer government funds, though the matter is far from settled law.
Essentially, the president submits a rescission request so late in the fiscal year that Congress doesn’t have enough time to act on the request — or, at least, doesn’t have the 45 days lawmakers are supposed to have. With the fiscal year coming to a close on Sept. 30, lawmakers have just over a month to act on Trump’s rescission.
The request would affect the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, OMB wrote in a letter to the Speaker Mike Johnson.
Trending
The decision faced some backlash from top appropriators. Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the rescission request “an apparent attempt to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval.”
“Article I of the Constitution makes clear that Congress has the responsibility for the power of the purse. Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law,” Collins wrote in a statement Friday.
“Instead of this attempt to undermine the law, the appropriate way is to identify ways to reduce excessive spending through the bipartisan, annual appropriations process,” she added.
Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, urged Republicans not to “accept Russ Vought’s brazen attempts to usurp their own power.”
She added in a statement that Vought “would like us all to believe that making this rescission request just weeks away from the end of the fiscal year provides some sort of get-out-of-jail-free card for this administration.”
“It emphatically does not,” she said.
The White House is anticipating legal challenges but says the process was legal, an official told reporters later on Friday. Pocket rescissions have been attempted before, with presidents trying the maneuver shortly after the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
“This will, I’m sure, be something that is litigated in the court, and we are well prepared for those,” the White House official said on a call with reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity. They added that they were confident the White House would prevail in court.
The official said they did not see the administration’s decision to attempt a pocket rescission as paving the way for a government shutdown, and that Democrats should work with Republicans to fund the government.
“Some have said, this is the administration saying they want to shut down,” the official said. “That is not true. This, in some respects, we believe will help with those members who are not normally accustomed or willing to vote for a continuing resolution that will, in fact, keep the government open.”
But Democrats made clear they consider Trump’s pocket rescission request to be a bad sign for funding negotiations.
Sen. Chris Murphy, an Appropriations Committee member, wrote on X that the pocket rescission request meant Trump was “rooting for a shutdown.”
“He knows he has created a huge problem because now any budget deal with Republicans isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” Murphy said. “He’s not even pretending to follow the law.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren told NOTUS in a statement that for “Senate Democrats to provide a single vote to fund the Trump administration while they run this illegal play,” Republicans should consider restoring the health care funding cut in the most recent budget reconciliation bill.
“Donald Trump and Republicans are now trying to illegally rip away bipartisan funding approved by Congress,” Warren said. “With Trump already unlawfully shutting down parts of the government, Republicans can’t be trusted to honor a budget deal while they’re hellbent on breaking the law and rigging the process.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that Trump and congressional Republicans were “hellbent on rejecting bipartisanship.”
“Reasonable Republicans don’t have to go along with the madness; Republicans don’t have to be a rubber stamp for this carnage,” he said.
Republican Rep. Riley Moore, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters Friday that while he was aware of Democrat’s complaints, he expects the House to be able to pass a funding bill before the next deadline.
“Obviously, Sen. Schumer has talked about pocket rescissions being an issue, but then he’s also talked about the necessity to passing a budget bill as well. So we’ll see kind of how that plays out,” Moore said.
This story has been updated with comments from a White House official and Rep. Riley Moore.
Author
Contributors
