President Trump’s move last week to cancel close to $1 billion of funds already appropriated by Congress is getting zero pushback from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune declined to push back on the “pocket rescission” of $810 million passed by Congress for education and health programs, telling Punchbowl News’s Andrew Desiderio that “it’s something I’m sure will be litigated.”
Thune’s comments came after fellow Republican Senator Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement Friday that the move came without warning and that she would address “these illegal actions” with her colleagues.
“Not only is the delay itself an impoundment that was not reported to Congress, but also it is a usurpation of Congress’s appropriations powers,” Collins said. “[The Office of Management and Budget] is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding.”
Asked about Collins’s statement, Thune repliedt, “As an appropriator she feels strongly that these are decisions made by appropriators and that the administration doesn’t have this authority.”
“Whether you agree in substance or not with what they did, you can argue that they be good stewards, and some of these things may be things many of us agree with, but the process by which they did it is gonna be, I assume, subject to a lot of discussion and probably some litigation,” Thune added.
The OMB said the funds being slashed were “the most harmful government spending.” Most of the cancelled funds came from the Department of Health and Human Services’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, which helps refugees and unaccompanied immigrant minors. The Trump administration claims the funds are no longer necessary.
But other spending was also clawed back, including for health research, an education program for immigrant students, a minority entrepreneurship initiative, housing counseling services, and more.
Trump decided to cancel the funds without giving Congress enough time to respond with legislation or reallocation. The end of the fiscal year is in less than one week, and the House is out of session until after November’s midterm elections.
Constitutionally, the power of levying taxes and appropriating federal funds is supposed to lie with Congress. In theory, the president can send a request to the legislature to cancel funds that they disagree with, but with 45 days notice to allow Congress to respond. Trump’s rescission did not follow those rules, and is likely violating the Constitution. But even when Trump usurps their constitutionally enshrined powers, Republicans in Congress lack the spine to challenge him.
“This is theft from the American people, plain and simple,” Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the appropriations committee, said in a statement. “These are funds Congress has delivered on a bipartisan basis and should be helping people—not cut off by a president more focused on building a ballroom than investing in families. Every Republican who voted for these bills should be furious because [OMB Director Russell Vought] is saying their votes don’t count.”
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