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Kevin R. Kosar


NextImg:Congress passes spending cuts — but the small savings may make for bigger budgeting troubles

Something remarkable occurred on Capitol Hill this month: Congress and the president partnered to make a law that cut the budgets of a few federal entities. A rescission of funds has not occurred since 1999, when former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, struck a deal with the Republican-held House and Senate.

This legislation cuts various international aid programs run by the Department of State, such as Migration and Refugee Assistance and Bilateral Economic Assistance, Assistance for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia. These programs have been on the chopping block since late winter, when the Department of Government Efficiency took aim at foreign aid.

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The law also eliminates funding for two quasi-governmental entities: the U.S. Institute for Peace and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Neither of them is standard executive branch bureaucracy. USIP and CPB are congressionally chartered not-for-profit agencies — part of the administrative state that the Trump administration has vowed to vanquish. USIP will lose about one-quarter of its current budget. CPB, which gives funds to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, had its previously approved funding for the next two years canceled.

Completing the rescissions process was not easy. By law, Congress has 45 days to agree to a president’s request to cancel spending. Both chambers have been busy with other pressing matters, including the Senate voting on presidential nominees for important executive branch jobs and, along with the House, passing resolutions to strike down regulations.

And unlike the bipartisan-supported cuts enacted under Clinton during an era of divided government, the White House and congressional Republicans decided to go it alone. That meant House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) had to assemble cuts from President Donald Trump’s list that nearly every Republican would support.

The House’s rescission bill was passed by the House on June 4, one day after Trump submitted it. Its slate of cuts could not get 51 votes in the Senate, and GOP legislators began bargaining with the White House behind closed doors. For example, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) did not want cuts to CPB to reduce broadcasts to remote rural areas and tribal lands. Other Republican senators fought to spare the State Department funding to curb the spread of AIDS in Africa.

A deal was struck, and one day before the 45-day deadline expired, the Senate passed its rescission bill by a vote of 51 to 48, and the House promptly voted to approve it by a 216-213 vote. No Democrats in either chamber supported the action.

Johnson crowed after the legislative win.

“The Republican Party and President Trump and everybody that works on our side have promised fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline, and we’re delivering on those promises again,” he said. “I’m delighted to send that over to the president’s desk for signature, and he’ll sign that quickly.”

For all the late-night work, the savings are exceedingly meager. They amount to about $9 billion. The federal government has already spent $5.45 trillion this year and is on course to exceed last year’s $6.75 trillion.

Republicans acknowledge the rescission did not amount to much, but they are promising to bring additional spending cut bills to a vote. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said he would like to send Congress at least one more rescission bill. He also told a group of reporters that “the appropriations process has to be less bipartisan” to produce real fiscal improvement.

Those comments were not well-received on Capitol Hill. Democrats warn Republicans against any additional attempts to cut appropriated funds. They argue that talk of additional rescission bills undermines the negotiations for next year’s spending.

“How are we supposed to negotiate a bipartisan deal if Republicans will turn around and put it through the shredder in a partisan vote?” asked Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, admitted that using rescissions too often can “destroy a certain amount of goodwill that I think costs you down the road if you do it too much.” Thune acknowledged Republicans will need Democrats’ support to reach the 60 votes needed to pass the spending bills, which means they cannot alienate them.

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Ten GOP senators also sent a letter to Vought protesting the administration’s pause on funding for some summer education programs, which were not in the rescissions bill. Democrats in 24 states previously filed lawsuits after the funds were not released to grantees on July 1.

The House and Senate need to agree on spending bills before midnight on Sept. 30. There is a long way to go, and time is beginning to run short. The House has passed only two of the 12 appropriations bills (defense and veterans’ affairs), and the Senate has moved none of them. Failure to agree will produce either a government shutdown or a continuing resolution, which would effectively keep the nation at the levels set during former President Joe Biden’s last year in office.

Kevin R. Kosar (@kevinrkosar) is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and edits UnderstandingCongress.org.