Donald Trump rescinded nearly $1 billion in congressionally approved spending on Friday, and the Trump administration rescinds congressional spending move targeted immigrant services and diversity-related funding. The White House announced the cuts with five days left in the federal fiscal year, narrowing the window for Congress to review them before they take effect.
White House Budget Cuts
The Office of Management and Budget described the cut as focused on "the most harmful government spending." Most of the money comes from services for immigrants, including non-profits that serve refugees and unaccompanied minors accused of being in the country illegally. The administration said the funds are no longer necessary because illegal border crossings have diminished considerably.
The White House press release also said some of the organizations are led by people who worked in Barack Obama’s administration. That detail places the cuts inside a broader effort to redirect spending already approved by Congress, not a new request for future money.
Susan Collins and Congress
Susan Collins, the Republican senator who chairs the Senate appropriations committee, said the action came without warning or consultation. She said she would work with colleagues on "these illegal actions," and added, "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 also said, "OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding." Her criticism sets up the central dispute: the White House is using a rare rescission authority, while Collins says the maneuver crosses the line into an executive branch taking money Congress already approved.
Patty Murray and pocket rescission
Patty Murray, the Washington Democrat and vice-chair of the appropriations committee, said, "This is theft from the American people, plain and simple." She said the money Congress delivered on a bipartisan basis should be helping people, not being cut off by a president more focused on building a ballroom than investing in families.
The Government Accountability Office has called a pocket rescission illegal, and Trump used the same approach a year ago when he blocked $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid. The US supreme court declined to block those rescissions, and this year he is targeting domestic spending instead.
What remains at issue is the split between the total amount and the program-by-program cuts. The administration has not laid out which specific organizations will lose how much, so the practical effect will turn on how the rescission is implemented inside the federal budget process.
