On Capitol Hill, it’s common for lawmakers to approve funding measures, but it’s far more unusual to see members un-approve funding measures. With this in mind, the latest NBC News report from Capitol Hill stood out as important for a few reasons.
The Republican-led House voted 214-212 on Thursday to pass a proposal from President Donald Trump to cancel $9.4 billion in previously approved federal funding. The ‘rescissions’ package would claw back $8.3 billion for foreign aid and $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to NPR and PBS. It is part of an effort by the White House to codify cuts proposed by the Department of Government Efficiency, which was helmed by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
It’s worth noting at the outset that the measure very nearly didn’t pass. Four Republicans ended up voting with the Democratic opposition, but there were other GOP opponents who opposed the effort. They ultimately caved under partisan pressure.
Republican leaders were aided significantly by the fact that four House Democrats, who would’ve voted against the package, missed the vote altogether for reasons that were not immediately clear.
But as the dust settles on the developments, there are four elements that are worth keeping in mind.
What’s a “rescissions” package? When Congress appropriates funds, the White House is obligated to spend the tax dollars accordingly. Presidents, at least for now, do not have the legal option of simply ignoring lawmakers’ wishes and impounding the money, though Richard Nixon tried and failed to do so.
But there is a legal mechanism in place that allows the White House to send Congress requests to undo funds that were appropriated but not spent. These are called “rescissions” packages. Once they arrive on Capitol Hill, lawmakers have 45 days to either approve the packages and un-spend the money, or ignore the president’s request, which in turn would force the administration to do what Congress directed in the first place.
What’s in Trump’s “rescissions” package? While other presidents have had small and unremarkable rescissions requests, Trump’s version was far more ambitious: It sought to codify cuts from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), cutting $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund local public television and radio stations around the country, and $8.3 billion from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
While $9.4 billion might not seem like an enormous amount of money given the size of the federal budget and the overall U.S. economy, these specific cuts would, if approved, have a significant impact. Not only are there communities nationwide that rely on public broadcasting — for things such as weather forecasts and emergency alerts — but as MSNBC’s Michael Steele explained this week, the USAID cuts raise life-or-death questions for many desperate people worldwide.
What about the power of the purse? A bedrock feature of the Constitution is that Congress controls the nation’s purse strings. Trump and his team have made no secret of the fact that they hope to shift at least some of these powers to the White House, and pry authority away from lawmakers, as part of a larger power grab. A great many Republicans appear eager to go along with these efforts.
What happens now? With the House narrowly approving the measure on Thursday, the package now heads to the Republican-led Senate (which rejected a similarly sized effort in 2018). While many measures in the upper chamber require 60 votes to advance, the rescissions process is different: If a simple majority in the Senate supports the president’s request, it’ll pass, and the spending will be cancelled.
In other words, unless four GOP senators balk, Trump’s rescissions gambit will succeed — and will almost certainly open the door to a series of related efforts. Watch this space.
