President Donald Trump and his administration are not afraid to reach far back in the playbook to enact their policies and agenda, and that's exactly what happened this week when the president used a decades-old move to override Congress.
According to The New York Post, President Trump, using a rare move called a "pocket rescission," canceled a staggering $5 billion chunk of congressionally approved foreign aid, sparking a firestorm of controversy in the process.
The legally debatable maneuver, as described by the Post, hasn't been deployed by the presidency in 48 years.
It was on Thursday night that Trump notified Congress of the move. The funds had been tied up in a court case until that day, which is presumably what prompted the president to pull them back.
The mechanics of the move are not widely known, but give the president authority to order the rescission without question.
The Post noted:
A pocket rescission is a request that’s presented to Congress so late in the fiscal year — which ends Sept. 30 — that it takes effect regardless of whether Congress approves.
Several major agencies were affected by the move, with hundreds of millions of dollars previously approved by Congress being withdrawn with a single stroke of Trump's pen.
The Post added:
The clawback includes $3.2 billion in United States Agency for International Development (USAID) development assistance, $322 million from the USAID-State Department Democracy Fund, $521 million in State Department contributions to international organizations, $393 million in State Department contributions to peacekeeping activities and $445 million in separately budgeted peacekeeping aid.
Earlier this year, the spending had been paused by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It was immediately challenged in court.
The Global Health Council was one of the plaintiffs that filed suit in the wake of the OMB pausing the funds.
Trump waited until the DC Circuit Court of Appeals lifted its injunction on the case to make his rare maneuver.
The president and his administration defended the move, pointing to a number of the spending items that seemed unnecessary and wasteful.
While Trump's OMB says the move is legal and Trump has the authority to do it, the legislative Government Accountability Office (GAO) claims the contrary.
It'll be interesting to see if the maneuver is challenged in court, just like virtually everything else Trump does.
