President Donald Trump's administration announced Friday it plans to cut $810 million in congressionally approved funding using pocket rescissions—a rarely employed tactic that allows the executive branch to effectively cancel spending legislators have already authorized.
The cuts target services for immigrants and minority groups, along with research initiatives within the Department of Health and Human Services, spanning the Departments of Commerce, Education, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, and Justice, as well as International Assistance Programs.
Trump's legal argument hinges on a technicality: federal law requires Congress a 45-day window to accept or reject the withholding of funds, but that window cannot be followed if the action occurs less than 45 days before the fiscal year concludes on Sept. 30. The House is not scheduled to return until after the November midterm elections.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, called the action "unlawful" Friday. She said the Office of Management and Budget "intentionally withheld these funds for months" to execute an "unlawful cancellation of appropriations" and that the delay itself constitutes an unreported impoundment and "usurpation of Congress's appropriations powers."
"OMB, as part of the executive branch, does not get to decide which programs are worth funding," Collins said.
Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, described the move as a "theft from the American people." She directly challenged OMB Director Russ Vought: "Russ Vought's message to Congress is that your votes don't count, and your laws are optional."
Murray called on Republican colleagues who have opposed such actions in the past to "stand up and join us to stop this, and remind this administration this is not how this works."
The White House characterized the rejected funding as "the most harmful government spending" and said Trump "is committed to utilizing all possible tools to cut wasteful and harmful government spending that does not benefit American citizens."
