WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has told congressional leaders he won’t be spending $4.9 billion in approved foreign aid in an effort that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said is illegal.
The Republican president’s move would effectively cut the budget without going through the legislative branch. He is attempting to do it through a “pocket rescission” — when a president submits a request to Congress to not spend approved funds toward the end of the fiscal year, so that Congress cannot act in the 45-day timeframe and the money goes unspent.
The letter was posted Friday morning on the X account of the White House budget office. It said the funding would be cut from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, an early target of Trump’s efforts to cut foreign aid.
The last pocket rescission was in 1977 by then-President Jimmy Carter, and the Trump administration argues that it’s a legally permissible tool. But such a move, if standardized by the White House, could effectively bypass Congress on key spending choices and potentially wrest some control over spending from the House and the Senate.
Collins, a Republican who leads the Senate Appropriations Committee and is up for reelection in 2026, drew a bright line on Trump’s action in a Friday statement, saying the proper process is to use the appropriations process to enshrine proposed cuts into law.
“Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law,” she said.
The 1974 Impoundment Control Act gives the president the authority to propose canceling funds approved by Congress. Congress can vote on pulling back the funds or sustaining them, but by proposing the rescission so close to Sept. 30 the White House ensures that the money won’t be spent and the funding lapses.
Trump had previously sought to get congressional backing for rescissions and succeeded in doing so in July when the House and the Senate approved $9 billion worth of cuts. Those rescissions clawed back funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid.
The Trump administration has made deep reductions to foreign aid one of its hallmark policies, despite the relatively meager savings relative to the deficit and possible damage to America’s reputation abroad as foreign populations lose access to food supplies and development programs.
In February, the administration said it would eliminate almost all of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall assistance abroad. USAID has since been dismantled, and its few remaining programs have been placed under State Department control.
The Trump administration on Wednesday appealed to the Supreme Court to stop lower court decisions that have preserved foreign aid, including for global health and HIV and AIDS programs, that Trump has tried to freeze.
The New York Post first reported the pocket rescission.
Story by Josh Boak. BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.
