President Donald Trump's nearly $5 billion "pocket rescissions" of a foreign aid package is legally sound, a White House official said Friday, according to Breitbart. Trump signed the rescissions drafted under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which allows the president to cancel funding that has been legally passed by Congress.
A president hasn't used this provision in nearly half a century, but Trump is serious about getting spending under control. Much of what was cut were wasteful projects for foreign nations, which adds insult to injury as the bloated federal budget continues to increase. Trump has chosen a route to cut spending that does not require Congressional approval.
"I herewith report 15 rescissions of budget authority, totaling $4.9 billion," Trump wrote in the letter Thursday, which accompanied a list of the projects being cut. The signed letter was shared to X, formerly Twitter, by Eric Daugherty. "BREAKING: President Trump cancels nearly $5 billion in wasteful FOREIGN AID at USAID and the State Department via a pocket recission. Let's go," Daugherty captioned it.
Official Weighs In
During a press call on Thursday, the White House official shared what was on the chopping block. "Just to give you a rundown of some of the things that this would defund: $3.2 billion for USAID development assistance–has funded things like $400 million for climate– global climate projects, building a greenhouse gas calculator, promoting vegan food in Zambia, electric buses in Rwanda, research on feeding insect powders to children in Madagascar, $22 billion for the gender equality and women’s empowerment hub," the official told the reporters on the call.
"There’s a number of provisions in the law set by Congress that are what we would call earmarks that we’re now at a point in the fiscal season where we don’t have an ability to spend outside of these other than to not spend them. There’s nothing that we can do within these accounts, because of the way they’re written, to shift them to things that the president would support in the foreign aid space," the official added.
"And just to give you an example of some of these things: $340 million for global climate adaptation, clean energy, sustainable landscapes; $297 million for foreign biodiversity programs; $40 million for development initiative ventures; $3 million to unionize workers in Bangladesh," the White House official mentioned. A pocket recission doesn't require Congressional approval, and the funding simply expires at the end of the year.
In July, Trump sent a rescissions package through Congress, which lawmakers approved. “What is different about this versus the earlier package is that it is a pocket rescission. This is not something where we submit a rescission and we’re expecting Congress to vote," the official clarified.
“This is a unique aspect of the Impoundment Control Act, where it looks the same as a rescission package, but the fact that it’s at the end of the fiscal year, within 45 days of the fiscal year, by virtue of you sending it up, it will automatically sunset at the end of the fiscal year," the White House official told reporters. "This is something that we’ve begun to send up to the Hill. We’ll continue those conversations with the legislators. But this is something that does not need a vote…these savings will automatically accrue to taxpayers at the end of the fiscal year,” the official continued.
Legal Justification
The official went on to explain that Trump's use of the law was on "firm legal ground" and that the General Accounting Office had previously approved of the move. "We’re not obviously big fans of the General Accounting Office...but we have been encouraged by Congress to use the Impoundment Control Act to send up rescissions, in this case, a pocket rescission–the General Accounting Office said that this was a legal path," the official noted.
"They weren’t wild about it, but they said Congress should consider closing this path off because future presidents would use it, and then when there were more than one opportunity where this was specifically the type of bill that would be used for GAO’s recommendation to be put into law and Congress chose not to do this. So GAO has now changed their position," the White House official went on about the partisanship in the agency.
"As you probably can tell, GAO changes their position with every administration. If there are Republicans in office, they decide against us on every single question that they consider, and if a Democrat is in office, they take the exact opposite position. They’re like the wind. So we are on very firm legal footing, and we will be making that case, and I think the courts, if they do consider this, will decide along the lines of what we’ve articulated," the official said.
Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing the narrative that Republicans are gunning for a government shutdown. "That is not true. This, in some respects, we believe will help with those members who are not normally accustomed or willing to vote for a continuing resolution that will, in fact, keep the government open. So we believe this is in no way contributing to the argument put out there by Democrats that this will lead to a government shutdown."
Too much of taxpayer money has been sent to foreign nations for frivolous projects, and Trump is ending that. The Democrats don't like it because it is popular with voters and lays bare their fiscal irresponsibility for all to see.
