Composite story
Trump moves to cancel $810 million Congress already approved
Washington, District of ColumbiaPublished 26 Sep 2026
Martin Falbisoner / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
The White House calls a late-year pocket rescission a legal way to drop the money. Susan Collins and the GAO say it is not.
On Friday President Trump moved to cancel about $810 million in spending Congress had approved, much of it for refugee and immigrant services, education grants, and diversity programs. The White House is using a pocket rescission, sent with about five days left in the fiscal year. Collins, the Republican chair of Senate Appropriations, and the Government Accountability Office say that maneuver is illegal. The administration says the Impoundment Control Act allows it. Last year the Supreme Court let a larger foreign-aid pocket rescission proceed without deciding the tactic for good.
Disputed opinions
None yet.
Trump cancels nearly $1 billion in spending approved by Congress, a move some lawmakers called illegal
Published 25 Sep 2026 accessed 26 Sep 2026
Facts
The White House is also rescinding $50 million for other programs that aid immigrants and noncitizens.
Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the administration is again trying to steal money promised to communities.
Trump has sought to cancel spending on programs that do not match his policy priorities.
Those efforts have drawn lawsuits.
Opinion
DeLauro said the administration is trying to steal money promised to communities.
Trump revives rare budget maneuver to rescind $810M in congressionally approved funds
Published 26 Sep 2026 accessed 26 Sep 2026
Facts
The White House claimed those programs supported an LGBT youth summit and Therapy for Latinx workshops.
The White House said the funding supports bringing foreign students and faculty to the United States.
The cuts include a Justice Department office focused on reducing racial tensions.
The cuts include a business-development initiative for minority entrepreneurs.
The cuts include HUD counseling services.
Collins argued the timing was intentional so the money would expire on Sept. 30 before Congress's 45-day review could finish.
The White House said some of the money has funded dissertations on queer and trans community building in foreign countries.
The House will be out of session through the November election, making it essentially impossible for Congress to respond.
The same CRS summary said the GAO has likened pocket rescissions to a line-item veto that would let a president strike parts of a law without Congress.
Carter proposed that rescission well before the 45-day congressional review deadline.
Opinion
No opinion marked.
Trump cancels nearly $1bn in funding approved by Congress
Published 25 Sep 2026 accessed 26 Sep 2026
Facts
Sen. Patty Murray, the Washington Democrat and vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, said the cancellation is theft from the American people.
Murray said Congress delivered these funds on a bipartisan basis.
Congress can typically review the president’s proposed spending cuts before they take effect.
This year Trump is targeting domestic spending.
The administration started the war in Iran without going through Congress.
The administration has also fired federal workers.
The administration imposed a historic increase in tariffs.
The Guardian says those moves left the courts to determine the limits of presidential power.
Opinion
Murray said canceling the funds is theft from the American people.
Murray said every Republican who voted for these bills should be furious because Russell Vought is saying their votes do not count.
Murray said Trump is more focused on building a ballroom than on investing in families.
The Guardian says the pocket rescission fits a pattern of the Trump administration taking greater control and eroding Congress’s power.
Trump cancels nearly $1B in funding for illegal immigrants and race-focused programs in new ‘pocket’ rescission
Published 25 Sep 2026 accessed 26 Sep 2026
Facts
The action eliminates 11 pools of unspent money at seven federal departments and agencies.
The Post says some groups that received the funds drew controversy over Democratic political ties and allegations they tolerated child abuse.
$28 million is being withdrawn from HHS grants deemed wasteful, duplicative, harmful, or blatantly ideological, and the precise grants are unclear.
The Post says some of that funding went to transgender-focused projects and drew conservative objections.
The Post says that money allegedly fueled DEI-centered agendas of groups including UnidosUS and the National Urban League.
The rescissions take $15 million from the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, an office focused on race relations that is all but closed, and $15 million from a DHS program for orientation, health care, and legal advice for illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.
Last September the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to let Trump proceed.
Smaller cuts zero out $10 million for the Minority Business Development Agency, $10 million for another DHS legal-services program for illegal immigrants, and $5 million for the HHS Office of Minority Health.
The Post says that initiative funded groups that allegedly encouraged participants to avoid law enforcement.
Trump also cut $9 million from a Treasury program that offered debt forgiveness for tropical-forest and coral-reef conservation meant to curb climate change.
Last year Trump asked congressional Republicans to end federal funding for NPR and PBS and to cut USAID, and Congress approved.
The Post says the latest pocket rescission could spark legal challenges.
Russ Vought and Mark Paoletta have pointed to pocket rescissions they say Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter made in the 1970s.
The Post says the latest action could test and expand further use of pocket rescissions.
Opinion
The Post casts the cuts as a drive by fiscal hawks to whittle down executive-branch expenses.
Trump takes aim at DEI and noncitizen programs in $1 billion pocket rescission
Published 25 Sep 2026 accessed 26 Sep 2026
Facts
House Budget ranking member Brendan Boyle said the rescission was made illegally and disregards Congress’s power of the purse.
The Washington Examiner said it asked the White House for comment on Collins’s statement.
Sen. Rand Paul told Politico last year that if there is a way to reduce spending, it should be used.
Congressional fiscal hawks have often advocated pocket rescissions as a way to save taxpayer dollars.
Opinion
Paul said that if there is a way to reduce spending, the government should use it.