Trump’s proposed ‘pocket rescissions’ land with a thud on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON (CN) — Congressional Democrats on Friday urged their Republican colleagues to reject President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to sidestep lawmakers’ spending authority, as he moved to unilaterally cancel nearly $5 billion in foreign aid.

The White House’s attempt to cancel funding already approved by Congress — a move some Democrats call plainly illegal — is being described as a “pocket rescission." The maneuver threatens to derail bipartisan budget talks just weeks before a looming fiscal deadline.

On Thursday night, Trump sent a rescission notice to House Speaker Mike Johnson, canceling approximately $4.9 billion in foreign aid. He demanded that Congress vote to cut the spending, which had been approved earlier this year, targeting funds for the U.S. Agency for International Development and international peacekeeping programs.

Under the Impoundment Control Act, the White House can place a 45 day hold on the budget line item it wants lawmakers to rescind. However, the Trump administration issued its pause less than 45 days before the fiscal year ended in September 2025, a timing loophole that effectively allows the administration to cancel the foreign aid funding without congressional approval.

The move has riled congressional Democrats and even some Republicans at a crucial moment for already-tense budget talks.

Washington Senator Patty Murray, the top Democratic lawmaker on the Senate Appropriations Committee, blasted the White House’s move as a “brazen attempt” to usurp Congress’ budget power. She accused White House Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought of treating the rescission tactic as a “get-out-of-jail free card” for the Trump Administration to avoid spending commitments approved by lawmakers.

Connecticut Senator Rosa DeLauro, the House Appropriations Committee’s lead Democrat, said in a statement that Trump was illegally withholding taxpayer funds in a “unilateral, partisan act” that shut Democrats out of the budget process.

DeLauro also said that she would not refer to the gambit as a “pocket recission” because classifying it as a legal recission request would give it “an air of legitimacy it does not deserve.”

“OMB Director Vought presumes he can go around Congress and the American people to assert a unilateral power over spending for himself above all others,” she wrote. “There is no inherent presidential power to impound; for almost 250 years of American history, only a couple of notably lawless executives have tested this theory, and they have been rejected in their attempts by the courts, the Congress and the people.”

The White House has not attempted a pocket veto on Congress for more than 50 years. Still, the Trump administration has argued that the move is rare but not unprecedented.

Democrats further argued that congressional Republicans would be flirting with a government shutdown if they agreed to go along with Trump’s plan to scuttle billions in foreign aid funding.

“It’s clear neither Trump nor congressional Republicans have any plan to avoid a painful and entirely unnecessary shutdown,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a post on X Friday morning. “With Trump’s illegal ‘pocket recission’ they seem eager to inflict further pain on the American people, raising their health care costs, compromising essential services and further damaging our national security.”

DeLauro called on her Republican colleagues to reject the president’s “unlawful games” and join Democrats in finding a path forward on a budget compromise.

A spokesperson for House Speaker Johnson declined to comment on Trump’s rescission request.

Lawmakers are set to return to Washington next week at the end of their August recess, leaving them only a few weeks to approve some sort of federal budget before the fiscal year elapses at the end of September.

Congress may again have to pass a continuing resolution, a short-term budget stopgap that has funded the government for the past six months. But the tight timeline, combined with the White House’s budgetary handling, has fueled fears lawmakers won’t strike a deal in time, risking a shutdown.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s effort to unilaterally cancel foreign aid funding may throw a wrench in ongoing lawsuits challenging its previous attempts to withhold funding for USAID, which the president has tried to dismantle for months. The White House has reportedly informed the court of its rescissions request.

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