The Trump administration announced Friday that it was canceling $810 million in congressionally approved spending for programs serving illegal immigrants, diversity initiatives and other efforts the administration said do not benefit American citizens. The money was already approved. Now the executive branch is trying to claw it back with a maneuver that Congress and the Government Accountability Office say goes beyond presidential authority.
Who Holds the Levers
President Donald Trump used a "pocket rescission" to try to wipe out the spending near the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30. That timing matters. If the money remains unspent until Sept. 30, it expires before Congress' 45-day review period can be completed. The House of Representatives will be out of session through the November election, which makes it essentially impossible for Congress to respond. That is how the machinery works when power sits at the top and everyone else is told to wait.
The vast majority of the cuts, some $567 million, were aimed at Health and Human Services programs that provided funding to non-government organizations supporting refugees, asylees and other non-citizens. The White House is also seeking to rescind $25 million for education programs for migrant students, claiming they supported things such as "an LGBT youth summit" and "Therapy for Latinx workshops." Programs the administration labeled "Woke International Education" were also selected for $70 million in cuts.
Who Pays for the Cutbacks
The White House said the funding supports bringing foreign students and faculty to the United States and, in some cases, has funded doctoral dissertations on "queer and trans community building in foreign countries." Other programs receiving the axe included a Justice Department office focused on reducing racial tensions, a business development initiative for minority entrepreneurs, Housing and Urban Development Department counseling services, and a series of Health and Human Services grants the administration described as "outright harmful and blatantly ideological."
The people at the bottom of these decisions are easy to spot. Refugees, asylees, migrant students, minority entrepreneurs, and people seeking counseling services are the ones left to absorb the hit. The state calls it fiscal discipline. The result is a smaller safety net for people already pushed to the margins.
The White House's announcement about the rescissions noted that several of the organizations are led by former officials in President Barack Obama's administration. That detail tells its own story about the revolving door between official power and the institutions that orbit it.
Congress Objects, But the Clock Keeps Ticking
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who faces a tough re-election campaign, condemned Trump's cuts and called it "the most recent attempt by this Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to undermine Congress’s Constitutional power of the purse." She said the timing was deliberate because the money would expire before Congress could finish its review.
"The independent Government Accountability Office has concluded that pocket rescissions are unlawful and not permitted by the Impoundment Control Act," Collins said in a statement. "I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions."
That promise runs into the same wall every time: the same institutions that claim to restrain power are built to manage it, not dismantle it. The OMB under Trump has argued that the Impoundment Control Act does not explicitly forbid the president from rescinding funds near the end of a fiscal year, according to a summary from the Congressional Research Service. OMB Director Russ Vought has repeatedly said the same.
The CRS summary also said the GAO has likened pocket rescissions to a line-item veto, which would allow a president to strike portions of legislation without congressional approval — a power the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional. A year ago, Trump issued the first pocket rescission in nearly 50 years, seeking to cancel $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid. The Supreme Court declined to block the move, citing the president's authority over foreign affairs as it allowed litigation to continue.
The last pocket rescission took place under former President Jimmy Carter, who proposed it well before the 45-day congressional review deadline. Now the White House is using the same old machinery, only faster and with less room for anyone below the top to stop it.