The White House on Friday evening moved to rescind $810 million in congressionally appropriated funds, reviving a budget maneuver the Government Accountability Office has deemed unlawful.
The maneuver and its history
A year earlier the administration blocked $4.9 billion in approved foreign aid through the same tactic, marking the first presidential use of a pocket rescission in roughly five decades. The technique relies on submitting a rescission request so late in the fiscal year that the money lapses before Congress can complete the 45-day review window the Impoundment Control Act provides.
The legal dispute
The administration cited the Impoundment Control Act as its statutory authority. The GAO, however, has concluded the law does not permit withholding funds through expiration when Congress has not approved the rescission. Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the move undermines Congress’s constitutional power of the purse and called any effort to cancel appropriated money without legislative consent a clear violation of law.
Where the cuts would fall
The proposed clawback targets $567 million for Health and Human Services programs serving refugees, asylees and other non-citizens, along with $28 million for HHS research. Additional reductions would hit Education Department programs for immigrant students. Neither the White House nor Collins’s office responded to requests for comment.