The White House announced Friday that it was rescinding over $800 million in congressionally appropriated funds across multiple federal agencies, invoking authority under the Impoundment Control Act through what it called a “pocket rescission.”
According to the White House statement, the rescissions target programs across the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Justice. The administration alleged that $567 million in HHS funds went to “pro-illegal immigration programs and Non-Governmental Organizations that provided services to refugees, asylees, and other non-citizens.” The administration also listed DHS programs it claimed “laundered taxpayer dollars” to provide “welfare” to undocumented immigrants.
This maneuver mirrors an earlier rescission Trump used in 2025 to claw back billions in appropriated funds for foreign aid programs. The Supreme Court stayed a lower court order last September requiring those funds to be obligated, though the Court noted that “the order should not be read as a final determination on the merits” of the rescission.
Pocket rescissions occur when the president requests Congress to cancel funds as the fiscal year approaches. According to the Government Accountability Office, while Congress must approve rescissions, it has only 45 days to respond. The GAO notes that “when not enough time is given to consider this request or for funds to be used before they expire, the president is bypassing congressional authority over government funding.”
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, strongly opposed the move. In a statement Friday, she called it an attempt to “undermine Congress’s Constitutional power of the purse” and a violation of law. Collins wrote that the independent GAO has concluded “pocket rescissions are unlawful and not permitted by the Impoundment Control Act” and that “any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”
Collins alleged that Congress received the $810 million package with no warning and that “OMB intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law.” She said she will “work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions.”
Key facts
- The White House rescinded over $800 million in congressionally appropriated funds using the Impoundment Control Act
- $567 million targeted HHS programs the administration claims supported undocumented immigrants and refugees
- Trump previously used pocket rescissions in 2025 to claw back billions for foreign aid; the Supreme Court stayed a lower court order but noted it made no final determination on the merits
- The GAO concludes pocket rescissions are unlawful under the Impoundment Control Act
- Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins called the move a clear violation of law and an attempt to bypass Congress’s constitutional power of the purse