President Trump and his America First Administration continue to defend you, the American taxpayer.
If you recall, the White House transmitted a rescissions package to Congress in the early summer months, requesting lawmakers to claw back these previously appropriated funds. My Republican colleagues and I did just that, passing $9 billion in cuts to woke, weaponized, and wasteful spending.
Yet this was just the start of our critical work to codify the DOGE cuts.
Last week, the President canceled $4.9 billion in America Last foreign aid. Unlike the previous round of cuts, the Trump Administration is eliminating this tranche of wasteful spending through what’s known as a pocket rescission.
Allow me to explain.
Under the Impoundment Control Act, the President has the authority to send a message to Congress requesting to claw back funds that lawmakers previously approved. Congress has 45 days to pass a bill cutting all or some of the funds proposed by the President. If Congress fails to act, the message to rescind funding expires.
However, a pocket rescission happens when the President sends his rescission request to Congress with fewer than 45 days left in the fiscal year, which ends on September 30th. Since the window is shorter than the typical 45 days for congressional approval, the spending within the President’s request is effectively canceled.
While this method is rare, it is not unprecedented. Both President Gerald Ford and President Jimmy Carter deployed pocket rescissions in the 1970s.
Now, 50 years later, President Donald Trump is exercising the same lawful authority to deliver historic savings for the American people.
According to the White House, here are just a few examples of the cuts included in President Trump’s America First pocket rescission:
$2.7 million to advance “inclusive democracy” in South Africa through the Democracy Works Foundation, which has published articles such as “The Problem with Whiteness,” and “The Problem with White People.” One article claims that White South Africans are “not even aware” of the “hostility they unleash” against black people; another lauds terrorism and communism as an effective means of deconstructing White Afrikaner identity.
$4 million for the New Alliance for Global Equality to advance “global LGBTQI+ awareness.”
$3.9 million to promote “democracy” for LGBTQI+ populations in the Western Balkans.
$2 million for “Organizing for Feminist Democratic Principles” in Africa.
$40 million to address “the needs, opportunities, and challenges identified by activists, and other civic actors engaged in nonviolent collective action.”
$2.3 million for desert locust risk reduction in the Central Region and Horn of Africa, with a focus on “gender equality,” “interculturality,” and supporting “indigenous peoples.”
$650,000 for micro-insurance for smallholder farmers and microbusinesses in Colombia for climate disaster response.
$24.6 million to build climate resilience in Honduras.
$38.6 million for biodiversity and low-emissions development in West Africa.
$60,000 for listening tours on local development in Timor-Leste.
$12,000 for “telling the USAID story” in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
$13.4 million for civic engagement in Zimbabwe.
$29 million to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which for decades has aided and abetted global trade cheating by the Chinese Communist party.
Folks, this is what defending taxpayers and draining the Swamp looks like.
Please know that I fully support President Trump and OMB Director Russ Vought’s move to cancel nearly $5 billion in wasteful spending, and I look forward to continuing to work with the Trump Administration on our shared goal of getting our nation’s fiscal house in order.
In fact, as a testimony to my support for the President’s pocket rescission authority, I recently protected this critical power in the ongoing appropriations process. Earlier this summer, I noticed language in the FY26 National Security & Department of State appropriations bill that would have effectively eliminated the President’s pocket rescission authority. Alarmed by this attempt by moderate Republicans to curb President Trump’s lawful authority, I successfully led an amendment to strip this measure, thereby preserving President Trump’s ability to deliver fiscal responsibility through pocket rescissions.
