The Trump administration is canceling $810 million in congressionally approved spending on programs for illegal immigrants and diversity initiatives, using a rare budget maneuver critics call unlawful.
President Donald Trump’s team announced Friday it would scrap the funding through a “pocket rescission,” a move timed near the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30 so unspent money can expire before Congress finishes its 45-day review. Fox News reported the cuts hit programs the White House says do not benefit American citizens.
The largest slice, some $567 million, targets Health and Human Services grants that flow to non-government groups aiding refugees, asylees and other noncitizens. Smaller pots include $25 million for education programs for migrant students and $70 million the administration labeled “Woke International Education.”
Additional targets reach a Justice Department office focused on reducing racial tensions, a business development effort for minority entrepreneurs, and Housing and Urban Development counseling services. The White House called some HHS grants “outright harmful and blatantly ideological.”
Officials described international education spending as money that brings foreign students and faculty into the United States and, in some cases, has paid for doctoral work on “queer and trans community building in foreign countries.” Education grants for migrant students, they said, backed items such as “an LGBT youth summit” and “Therapy for Latinx workshops.”
Several of the organizations involved are led by former officials from President Barack Obama’s administration, the White House noted. The administration’s baseline argument is simple: taxpayers should not underwrite efforts that serve illegal immigrants or push ideological projects abroad and at home.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought has argued the Impoundment Control Act does not explicitly bar a president from rescinding funds near the close of a fiscal year. That reading underpins the pocket rescission strategy.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, condemned the move as an attack on Congress’s core power. She faces a tough re-election race and framed the fight in constitutional terms.
Collins said the action was:
"the most recent attempt by this Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to undermine Congress’s Constitutional power of the purse."
She pointed to the Government Accountability Office’s legal view:
"The independent Government Accountability Office has concluded that pocket rescissions are unlawful and not permitted by the Impoundment Control Act."
Collins added:
"I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions."
A Congressional Research Service summary reflected the same GAO stance. The watchdog has likened pocket rescissions to a line-item veto, a power that would let a president strike pieces of legislation without full congressional approval. The Supreme Court long ago ruled the line-item veto unconstitutional.
By proposing the cancellation so close to Sept. 30, the White House aims to let the dollars lapse before lawmakers can complete the review window. The House is out of session through the November election, which makes a rapid congressional response essentially impossible under ordinary scheduling.
That timing is the heart of the dispute. Congress and the GAO say the president exceeds his authority. The executive branch says the statute leaves room to act when the clock runs out.
This is not Trump’s first use of the tool. A year ago he issued the first pocket rescission in nearly 50 years, seeking to cancel $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid. The Supreme Court declined to block that earlier move while litigation continued, citing the president’s authority over foreign affairs.
The last pocket rescission before Trump’s recent ones came under former President Jimmy Carter, who proposed it well before the 45-day deadline. The current package is smaller in dollar terms than last year’s foreign-aid effort, yet it reaches deeper into domestic social and education accounts.
HHS absorbs the bulk of the new cuts. Justice Department and HUD accounts round out the list. The administration’s public case rests on the claim that these dollars advance ideology and serve noncitizens rather than core American priorities.
Collins and other critics cast the fight as a defense of the power of the purse. The White House casts it as basic stewardship: stop sending money to programs that fail ordinary taxpayers.
When Congress loads the budget with grants for illegal immigrants and ideological projects, voters expect a president willing to pull the plug before the fiscal year closes.
