Following the work of the Department of Government Efficiency to expose monumental amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending, there has been some legitimate frustration among those who believe Congress is not doing enough to cut unnecessary expenditures of taxpayer dollars.
The Republican-led House just took a small but important initial step to begin making some of the DOGE cuts permanent with the passage of a bill that would slash around $9.4 billion in dubious spending from the federal budget, Fortune reported.
Of course, many Democrats hyperbolically reacted as though the relatively modest cuts would eliminate critical life-saving programs around the globe, while some Republicans argued that the cuts weren't nearly enough to get rampant federal spending under control.
On Thursday, in a 214-212 vote, the House approved a bill that would rescind approximately $9.4 billion in previously authorized federal spending, per a request from President Donald Trump's White House.
According to the Associated Press, the recession request was submitted under the Impoundment Control Act, in which a president can notify Congress of their intention not to spend certain authorized funds, at which point Congress has 45 days to decide whether to approve or deny the request.
Notably, the recession process only requires a simple majority to clear the Senate rather than the 60-vote threshold that is typically needed to pass normal spending bills.
The AP noted that the White House further indicated that this request was likely just the first, and more was to come, probably in September, near the end of the fiscal year.
In a statement posted to X, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said, "Today’s House passage of this initial rescissions package marks a critical step toward a more responsible and transparent government that puts the interests of the American taxpayers first."
"Thanks to DOGE’s work, this package eliminates $9.4 billion in unnecessary and wasteful spending at the State Department, USAID, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds politically biased media outlets like NPR and PBS," he added. "This is just one of the multiple ways Republicans are codifying President Trump’s executive orders and DOGE’s findings."
Predictably, House Democrats howled about how "cruel" and terrible the proposed cuts were and ominously warned that they could result in disasters, disease, and death around the world, according to Fortune, but many Republicans pushed back against such fearmongering.
"Those Democrats saying that these rescissions will harm people in other countries are missing the point," House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) said. "It’s about people in our country being put first."
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) explained that the cuts targeted unnecessary expenditures on things like climate change and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and said, "Yet, my friends on the other side of the aisle would like you to believe, seriously, that if you don’t use your taxpayer dollars to fund this absurd list of projects and thousands of others I didn’t even list, that somehow people will die and our global standing in the world will crumble."
To be sure, the request to rescind roughly $9.4 billion in federal spending is just a fraction of the estimated $180 billion that DOGE has identified as wasteful, fraudulent, or abusive spending that should be cut from the federal budget.
That said, as both the White House and many congressional Republicans insisted, this bill passed by the House and forwarded to the Senate is merely an opening bid in a continuing effort to pare down the budget and compel the government to only spend within its means.
