Collins exploring pocket rescissions ban after Trump cancels $810 million in federal spending

Senate appropriators are exploring a ban on pocket rescissions as part of the next spending package after President Donald Trump clawed back $810 million in congressionally approved funding.Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME) told reporters on Monday she would once again try to curb the Trump administration on spending following Trump’s rescission and that appropriators are looking into blocking “pocket rescissions” in the next spending bill.It is unclear if language inserted by appropriators would reinstate the canceled funding or move to block future efforts to nix funding by the president. Adding language to spending bills, which must pass with bipartisan support, to rein in Trump, could prove tricky in the upper chamber. Democrats previously tried to add language blocking the White House from using a controversial budgetary maneuver known as a “pocket rescission” in a funding patch passed in August, but were blocked by Republicans from doing so. The effort from Democrats came after Trump canceled billions of dollars in foreign aid last year.A pocket rescission is a maneuver in which a president requests Congress block funding near the end of the fiscal year so that the funds expire before the 45 days required by law for Congress to consider the request. Trump notified Congress on Friday that he was clawing back $810 million for programs dealing with serving illegal immigrants, diversity initiatives, education, health research efforts, and other efforts the administration disagreed with.Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), another GOP appropriator, described pocket rescissions as “sneaky and designed to go around Congress” while talking to reporters on Monday.“I think we need, we as Congress, need to figure out how we can limit the ability of a pocket rescission,” she said. When asked if more guardrails would be placed against pocket rescissions in future spending bills, Murkowski said there was “more” appropriators could do in those bills but that it would be “an annual thing that you basically have to renew” and appeared to favor reforms to the Impoundment Act.Collins, who is locked in a tight race against Democrat Troy Jackson, first voiced her opposition to Trump’s rescissions on Friday through a statement posted on X, in which she said the move came “Without warning or consultation” and called it the “most recent attempt by this Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to undermine Congress’s Constitutional power of the purse.”She continued, “Not only is the delay itself an impoundment that was not reported to Congress, but also it is a usurpation of Congress’s appropriations powers. OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding.”Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who lost his primary to Trump-backed Ken Paxton, told reporters Monday he agreed with Collins’s assessment and doesn’t believe the president has the authority to rescind the funds.Not all senators were as quick to join Collins in her opposition, however, with Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) saying he wouldn’t “go that far” as to call Trump’s move unlawful.It is unclear whether language to prohibit the president’s use of pocket rescissions would make it through the Senate chamber, where appropriations bills would need to clear a 60-vote threshold to pass on the floor. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) sidestepped when asked if he agreed with Collins on the legality of the cancellation of funds, saying Collins, as an appropriator, “feels strongly that these are decisions made by appropriators, and that the administration doesn’t have this authority. But that, again, is something the court will probably decide.”“Some of these things may be things that many of us agree with, but the process by which they did it is one that is going to be, I assume, subject to a lot of discussion and probably some litigation,” Thune said.The Washington Examiner reached out to every other House Republican appropriator for comment on the pocket rescissions, but did not receive responses by publish time.While House GOP appropriators are largely staying mum on the rescissions, top Democratic appropriator Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) called on Republicans to reject the “attempt to circumvent Congress” and accused the Trump administration of “unlawfully impounding funds all year just to get to this point.”