House Republicans passed President Donald Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package Thursday night after Senate Republicans made minor changes to the bill.
The package passed on a largely party line 216-213 vote. All Democrats and two Republicans — Michael Turner (R-OH) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) — voted against the bill. The vote was held up for hours as Republicans fought with one another about a vote on a non-binding resolution asking the Trump administration to release files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s case.
The rescissions package effectively authorizes actions the White House has already taken to claw back billions in foreign aid and public media funding that was previously authorized by Congress. In rubber stamping the rescissions package without specifics on where exactly the cuts will come from, the vote also sends the message that congressional Republicans are largely unbothered by the Trump White House’s constitutionally backwards targeting of Congress’ power of the purse.
The executive branch had already been withholding many of the funds in question long before it even attempted to seek Congress’ approval. The rescissions package is part of an effort to give the Department of Government Efficiency’s rampage through the federal government some legitimacy by allowing Congress a vote on it.
The House vote came less than 24 hours after Senate Republicans narrowly approved the cuts Trump requested in a 51-48 vote. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) had joined Democrats early Thursday morning and voted “no,” citing concerns about cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid, as well as the lack of clarity from the White House and the Office of Management and Budget on where exactly the cuts in the request would come from.
Earlier this week, the White House agreed to drop a $400 million cut to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — a President George W. Bush-era global HIV and AIDS prevention program — in order to sway Senate Republicans who were worried about that element of the proposal.
That brought the request from the original $9.4 billion to $9 billion, triggering a second vote to be held on the House floor to approve the changes to the bill.
Republicans also added new language in the package vowing that areas related to food aid, maternal health, malaria and tuberculosis wouldn’t be impacted by the cuts and that certain food assistance programs would be protected.
Now, Trump will need to sign the recissions bill before the end of Friday, in order to avoid running out the 45-day clock that starts with a formal rescissions request.
Meanwhile, the director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought told reporters Thursday that the White House is planning on sending Congress another rescissions package.
The White House has indicated it may try in September to cut funds for good without congressional approval. The untested, questionable maneuver — “pocket rescissions” — would require the Trump administration to wait until closer to the end of the fiscal year to once again formally ask Congress to claw back a set of funds. That request would start another 45 day clock, in which the president is legally allowed to delay spending the funds in question as it waits for Congress to make a decision on cancelling the previously appropriated spending.
But even if Congress fails to vote on the request, the freeze in place would ultimately allow the Trump administration to not spend the money until it expires at the end of the fiscal year, Vought has claimed. Such an attempt would likely draw challenges in court.
