On August 28, Trump undertook an action called a “pocket rescission” to scrap $5 billion in foreign aid without Congressional consent.
The [New York Post] report notes, “A pocket rescission is a request that’s presented to Congress so late in the fiscal year — which ends Sept. 30 — that it’s made regardless of whether Congress acts.”
Raw Story
The measure has not been undertaken in 48 years.
The authoritarian move, which breeches traditional executive powers, was condemned as illegal by Republican Senator Susan Collins, who is on the Appropriations Committee. While the first Trump administration’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) concurred that pocket rescissions are illegal, this has not stopped the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, from favoring the extreme executive action.
The measure also risks a shutdown, as Democrats are unlikely to be willing to vote for a funding package directly and illegally conceived by the White House.
The clawbacks take aim at funding to the United Nations, aid programs run by the State Department, the little in financing that the moribund US Agency for International Development receives, US peacekeeping operations, and the State Department’s Democracy Fund. Undoubtedly, this will be perceived as a gift to foreign adversaries.
On August 6, the GAO released an article making it explicitly clear that pocket rescissions are illegal.
A pocket rescission is illegal as we explained in our most recent decision on pocket rescissions. Congress holds the power of the purse—approving a budget and appropriating funds. Presidents and executive branch agencies are responsible for administering those funds.
Government Accountability Office
