Collins keeps GAO unlawfulness fight on $810M rescission
Susan Collins reiterated GAO findings that pocket rescissions are unlawful after Friday's ~$810 million White House cut. Democrats cast a power-of-the-purse fight; the White House frames immigrant and DEI programs as waste. Whether courts or Congress will answer before Sept. 30 remains open.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Friday that the White House's ~$810 million "pocket rescission" is unlawful. That warning still leads Sunday coverage. The cut came just days before the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.
Collins said the Office of Management and Budget held bipartisan funds for months so they would expire without a new vote. "OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding," she wrote. She pointed to the Impoundment Control Act and to Government Accountability Office findings that pocket rescissions are not allowed. She said she will work with colleagues to push back.
A pocket rescission is a White House ask to cancel spending so late that Congress cannot finish its usual 45-day review before the money runs out. The tool sat unused for about 50 years. The Trump administration used it in 2025 to hold back about $4.9 billion in foreign aid. The Supreme Court let that hold stand for a time in September 2025 while cases moved forward. Congress also passed a separate July 2025 package that cut billions for foreign aid and public broadcasting.
Friday's notice listed about $810 million across Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, and foreign aid accounts. The biggest line is roughly $547 million to $567 million for HHS Refugee and Entrant Assistance. Other cuts hit housing counseling the White House called DEI-focused, international education grants, Justice Community Relations Service funds, climate-linked debt relief, and some HHS research and minority-health accounts. The White House called the targets "the most harmful government spending." It said President Trump is using Impoundment Control Act tools to cut waste that does not help American citizens.
Senate Democrats, including Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, called the move a theft from kids, schools, and research. They said they will challenge it. NBC News led on that unlawfulness pushback and on programs that serve immigrants, minority groups, and HHS research. CNBC focused on the timing fight under the Impoundment Control Act and on Collins's GAO-backed critique. The Washington Examiner led on the White House immigrant-services and DEI waste frame. It also noted fiscal hawks such as Sen. Rand Paul who have backed rescissions as a way to cut spending. House Budget ranking member Brendan Boyle joined Collins in calling the package illegal.
No new lawsuit or hearing is locked in for this week. The House is not due back until after the November midterms. The fiscal year ends Wednesday. The near-term fight may turn on the courts and on any bipartisan push Collins can build.
Where outlets agree The Senate Appropriations Committee statement, NBC News, CNBC, and the Washington Examiner agree the White House announced an ~$810 million pocket rescission late Friday and that Appropriations Chair Susan Collins called the move unlawful, citing GAO findings under the Impoundment Control Act.
Where they differ NBC News stresses Democratic theft-from-schools framing and GAO illegality warnings; CNBC centers the ICA timing fight and Collins's GAO-backed critique; the Washington Examiner leads on the White House immigrant-services and DEI waste frame and notes fiscal hawks who back rescissions as spending cuts. Whether a lawsuit or hearing lands before funds lapse Sept. 30 remains open.