Senior administration officials have confirmed that President Donald Trump would request a rescission package to cut $15 billion from old spending accounts, Vox reported.
Trump’s request will not touch the recently passed $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill—the request would remove monies appropriated for domestic programs that have not yet been spent, the report said.
The package would include $7 billion in cuts from the Children’s Health Insurance program, $5 billion of which has expired and could not be spent, and $2 billion from a contingency fund that the administration said would be necessary.
Other cuts will include $800 million from Hurricane Sandy relief funding; money for the Ebola outbreak, and several grants, the Vox report said.
After that request has been made, Congress will have 45 days to act on it. During those 45 days, the funding is frozen. If the package goes to a vote, a simple majority would allow it to pass, the report said.
Administration officials said they expect the rescission package to pass the House, but they are less certain about the Senate, Vox reported.
The report said that Bill Clinton was the last president who succeeded in getting Congress to cut spending using rescission.
Before Clinton, the process was used frequently—with presidents from 1974 to 2000 proposing rescissions totaling $76 billion for every fiscal year except for 1988, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reported.
If Congress does not act on the rescission request within 45 days, the executive branch is required to spend the money the way it had been allocated, and the president is not allowed to propose rescission again, Vox reported.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney spoke in support of rescissions Tuesday.
“If this passes, it will be the largest rescission package to pass in history,” Mulvaney said.
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