President Donald Trump asked Congress on Tuesday to rescind $15 billion in spending that has already been approved by Congress in the most recent omnibus spending bill.
“This morning, President Trump sent Congress a rescissions package asking us to claw back more than $15 billion in wasteful spending,” Congressman Gary Palmer said on social media. “This is money that should have never been appropriated. For example, it includes $4.3 billion from a Department of Energy loan program which has been stagnant for at least seven years. I hope that Congress acts on this proposal quickly and that this is not the only proposal from the Administration in regards to rescinding money agencies should have never been awarded.”
“I support the Trump Administration’s use of the rescission tool to identify and cut out some of our government’s wasteful, unnecessary spending,” Congresswoman Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, said. “Title X of the 1974 Congressional Budget Impoundment Control Act gives the President authority to propose the rescinding of specific funding previously approved by Congress. This $15.4 billion rescission package targets funds that are no longer necessary, have been diverted from their original intent, have sat unused for years, or have expired. This is a commonsense measure to cut government spending, and I look forward to supporting the package when it comes before the House.”
“Our moral duty to the taxpayer requires us to make our government leaner and more accountable,” Trump said.
Trump is requesting that Congress rescind more than $15 billion in budget authority. The president said that this request is the first of several upcoming rescission packages aimed at cutting federal spending.
Trump is proposing the largest single rescissions request in history, pursuant to the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Under the ICA, the President has the authority to request rescissions, and his proposals are eligible for expedited consideration by Congress.
Both Democratic and Republican presidents have used the ICA to propose nearly $76 billion in spending cuts since the law was enacted. Upon the passage of the ICA in 1974, each president from Gerald Ford to Bill Clinton successfully used the ICA to rescind federal funds.
The White House said in a statement that, “President Trump’s first rescissions package targets spending that is unnecessary, unused, or cannot be used for its original purpose.”
Some of the funds included in the President’s request were appropriated many years ago but have never been used.
Funds in President Trump’s first proposed rescission package include:
- $4.3 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which has not made a loan since 2011.
- $523 million from the Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program, which had its authority to make new loan guarantees lapse in 2011.
- $800 million from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, which is in excess of the funds needed in fiscal years 2018 or 2019, and will receive a new appropriation of $10 billion in 2020.
- $252 million in excess funds remaining from the 2015 Ebola outbreak response, an epidemic the World Health Organization declared to be over in 2016.
- $133 million from the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits program that expired in 2012.
- $148 million from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, including funds for outbreak response for disease incidents that have been resolved.
