Senate appropriators move to curb Trump’s $810 million ‘pocket rescission’

Senate appropriators from both parties are searching for ways to limit President Donald Trump’s latest “pocket rescission” after the White House moved to cancel about $810 million in previously appropriated funds with almost no time left for Congress to vote before the fiscal year ends Wednesday, Roll Call (opens in new tab) and The Hill (opens in new tab) report.

The package, announced Friday night, targets health, education and related programs — including about $567 million tied to HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement accounts — that the administration has branded wasteful or “woke,” according to Roll Call (opens in new tab) and NBC News (opens in new tab). Under the Impoundment Control Act, a formal rescission request starts a 45-day clock; if that clock runs past the fiscal year’s end, withheld money can lapse without a congressional vote — the maneuver critics call a pocket rescission.

Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, called the move unlawful and told reporters Monday that senators were “already looking at language” to restrict such cancellations in a fiscal 2027 funding deal, Roll Call (opens in new tab) reports. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said the tactic is “almost the same thing” as a line-item veto and “wrong.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, urged Congress not to rely solely on courts: “Congress needs to save ourselves.”

Not all Republicans agree. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., defended the rescission on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” saying Congress should cut the spending itself and praising OMB Director Russ Vought for acting, The Hill (opens in new tab) and Roll Call (opens in new tab) report. The House Freedom Caucus has also thanked the White House. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he expects litigation but declined to endorse the move.

Democrats were sharper. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called the cancellation “theft from the American people,” and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said nearly $1 billion supporting kids, schools, small businesses and research was being stripped illegally, NBC News (opens in new tab) reports. Murray noted Republicans blocked prior appropriations language meant to prevent pocket rescissions. Last year the Supreme Court allowed Trump to cancel more than $4 billion in foreign aid via a similar path without settling the underlying legality, Roll Call (opens in new tab) notes. Whether Collins can lock bipartisan guardrails into must-pass funding bills before the midterms remains the open fight.