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 legal battle with major stakes 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,” an OMB spokesperson said in a statement.
But Democratic lawmakers and the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee criticized the decision, saying the move is 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 the move, 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.”
“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.”
DeLauro 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.”
The president notified lawmakers of the 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.
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 GAO. Republicans, while less willing to challenge the actions publicly, have also quietly bristled at the aggressive encroachment on their long-standing prerogatives.
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.
