President Donald Trump's administration moved Friday to cancel $810 million in congressionally approved funding through a rarely used budgetary tactic known as "pocket rescissions." The White House alerted Congress in a letter signed by the president.
The cuts affect programs serving immigrant and minority groups, along with Department of Health and Human Services research initiatives. They also target the Departments of Commerce, Education, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, and Justice, plus International Assistance Programs.
The administration's legal theory rests on a claim that Congress's 45-day review period for withholding funds cannot apply if the action occurs fewer than 45 days before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30—only days from Friday's announcement. That argument has been challenged in court and rejected by lawyers across the spectrum.
The House will not return until after the November midterm elections, making any legislative block impossible before the deadline.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, called the move "unlawful" Friday. She accused the Office of Management and Budget of intentionally withholding the funds for months to engineer an "unlawful cancellation of appropriations" that Congress had approved on a bipartisan basis and Trump had signed into law.
Collins said the monthslong delay itself amounted to an unreported impoundment—a "usurpation of Congress's appropriations powers." She emphasized that the OMB "does not get to decide which programs are worth funding."
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. and Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee, called the action "a theft from the American people." She directly attacked OMB Director Russ Vought, saying his message to Congress was that "your votes don't count, and your laws are optional."
Murray called on Republicans who have previously opposed such actions to "stand up and join us to stop this, and remind this administration this is not how this works." The Government Accountability Office has also asserted the move bypasses Congress's constitutional spending authority.
