President Donald Trump has notified Congress he is moving to cancel $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid using a rare “pocket rescission,” drawing criticism from Democrats and at least one top Republican senator who questioned the legality of the move.
The Office of Management and Budget’s proposal to claw back the funding this late in the fiscal year sets it up to be canceled if Congress doesn’t consider the proposal – and for a potential high-stakes legal battle in the months ahead.
“For the first time in nearly 50 years, the President is using his authority under the Impoundment Control Act to deploy a pocket rescission, cancelling $4.9 billion in woke and weaponized foreign aid money that violates the President’s America First priorities,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
The White House push, however, could complicate bipartisan efforts to avert a government shutdown. Congress will need to approve new funding by September 30 or risk shutting down large parts of the federal government. Democrats have warned pocket rescissions could make those negotiations more difficult.
“It is all illegal,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told CNN on Friday morning. “He continues to want to steal money that has been appropriated. We appropriated this money. They are just in such violation of the law.”
The Connecticut congresswoman made clear that Democrats would be seeking more limits on Trump’s power as part of the upcoming funding negotiation with Republicans: “We have to push for guardrails.”
OMB Director Russell Vought has repeatedly said the so-called pocket rescission was on the table, despite significant dispute over the legality of a tool that hasn’t been utilized in nearly five decades. Vought, who also served in his current role in Trump’s first term, returned to OMB with an expansive view of the president’s authority and a granular understanding of the tools he could utilize in pursuit of Trump’s agenda.
Many of his efforts explicitly target the congressional power of the purse and have been called illegal by Democrats and the Government Accountability Office. Some Republicans, while less willing to challenge the actions publicly, have also quietly bristled at the aggressive encroachment on their long-standing prerogatives.
Democratic lawmakers and the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee were swift to criticize the move, saying it’s against the law.
“Given that this package was sent to Congress very close to the end of the fiscal year when the funds are scheduled to expire, this is an apparent attempt to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval,” said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Senate appropriator. “Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”
Collins specifically pointed to a Government Accountability Office decision saying pocket rescissions are illegal.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also condemned it, saying the “announcement of the Administration’s plan to advance an unlawful ‘pocket rescission’ package is further proof President Trump and Congressional Republicans are hellbent on rejecting bipartisanship and ‘going it alone’ this fall.”
With the government funding deadline looming, a White House official signaled Friday that the administration prefers a “clean” stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution, “of some length” and believes Democrats will shoulder the blame if they oppose it.
“It’s very hard for me to believe that they are going to oppose a clean CR that would cause them to be responsible for a government shutdown,” the official said on a call with reporters Friday. “The people that are asking for more than the clean CR are normally the ones that absorb the blame within this town for a shutdown occurring.”
The White House official told reporters the administration is on “firm legal ground” with the pocket rescission, pointing to its interpretation of a past GAO finding on the Impoundment Control Act, and would withstand legal challenges.
The president notified lawmakers of his decision in a letter Thursday, saying he would cancel $4.9 billion from Department of State and United States Agency of International Development and international assistance programs.
That includes $3.2 billion from USAID development assistance programs, $393 million from State Department peacekeeping activities, $322 million from the State Department’s Democracy Fund, and more than $444 million in other peacekeeping aid, according to the letter, which was included in a related lawsuit.
Trump’s rescission proposal is his second effort to cut down funding that has already been approved by Congress. The notification on Thursday night triggers an automatic 45-day pause in the targeted funding for lawmakers to act on the proposal.
If legislation enacting the proposed cuts does not pass within that window, the funding automatically resumes. The current proposal was sent within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year, which would essentially cancel the funding outright without congressional action.
The last president to use a pocket rescission was President Jimmy Carter in 1977.
CNN
