Congress Prepares To Grapple With Turning Trump Executive Orders Into Actual Spending Cuts

As lawmakers return from their Memorial Day vacation, one of the first items they will have to tackle is Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts. White House officials say they are sending what is known as a “rescissions package” — meaning a request to cut previously approved funding — to the Hill this week for Congress’s consideration.Depending on how the bill fares, it could be the first of many such requests. President Trump and Mr. Musk’s slash-and-burn method of cutting federal spending, including grant funds and foreign aid from USAID, has been based on the presidential power of impoundment. Presidents long had the authority to simply not spend — or “impound” — money appropriated by Congress, though that power was restricted by Congress more than 50 years ago.Despite that, Mr. Trump is forging ahead as his spending cuts are, in many cases, being blocked by judges who say he must spend money given to him by Congress. The director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that the administration will be sending its rescissions package to Congress this week. The package would cut more than $9 billion of federal spending, much of which will be based on Mr. Musk’s DOGE recommendations, though Mr. Vought did not disclose specifics. Politico reports that the cuts will likely deal with defunding PBS and NPR, as well as nixing some foreign aid funds.Speaker Johnson says Congress will act “quickly” to pass the bill. “We want to see how this first bill does. We want to make sure it’s actually passed,” Mr. Vought said of the rescissions package. “This is the first of many rescissions bills.” Mr. Vought cautioned, however, that the White House will still push forward with other spending cuts even if Congress does not act. He and many in the administration have long viewed the 1974 law limiting presidential impoundment powers, the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, as unconstitutional. “Some we may not actually have to get Congress to pass the rescissions bills,” he said of additional spending cuts. “We have executive tools. We have impoundment.”The outcry from conservatives targeting their Republican colleagues for not yet codifying Mr. Musk’s DOGE cuts has been hard to avoid in recent weeks. Several conservative social media stars, debt hawks in Congress, and even Mr. Musk himself have spoken out about Congress’s inability to actually put pen to paper and turn Mr. Trump’s numerous executive orders on government spending into more than just press releases. Congress’s track record on the issue is not good. The legislative branch failed to pass a previous rescissions package sent to the Hill by Mr. Trump in his first term, when Republicans controlled both chambers. A request for $15 billion in cuts was passed by the House, but the Senate ultimately did not take a vote on the measure. A second rescissions package was sent to the Hill in January 2021, though it never came up for a vote. This time, Mr. Vought is telling conservatives and debt hawks that even if Congress can’t pass this smaller rescissions bill, they have little to worry about. Regardless of what Congress ends up doing, the White House will continue pushing to use its impoundment powers regardless of what current law states. “We intend to use all of these tools. We want Congress to pass it where it’s necessary,” Mr. Vought said Sunday. “We also have executive tools, and that is something we’re gonna be working” on with Congress.Questions about the proper role of impoundment could land before the Supreme Court in the coming months or years, now that certain groups are suing to force the administration to send them the funds approved by Congress. Mr. Vought said Sunday that there will always be a natural “tension” between the White House’s and Congress’s interpretations of the Constitution, though the “accusations” of any illegal behaviors will not stop them. “Each branch has to look at the Constitution themselves and uphold it, and there’s tension between the branches, and I don’t doubt that Congress is gonna make accusations,” Mr. Vought said Sunday. “That’s not gonna stop us from moving forward.”

Congress Prepares To Grapple With Turning Trump Executive Orders Into Actual Spending Cuts

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