President Trump revived a pocket rescission, a maneuver unused since 1977, to cancel nearly $5 billion in foreign aid and peacekeeping funds. The action followed a D.C. Circuit ruling that lifted an injunction on the previously frozen package, allowing the administration to strike $3.2 billion in USAID development assistance and about $838 million in peacekeeping contributions. The administration flagged items it termed wasteful, including climate resilience funding in Honduras and programs for LGBT democracy in the Western Balkans. The Government Accountability Office contends pocket rescissions violate the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, while OMB officials cite 1970s presidential precedents; GAO is the only entity with standing to sue.
President Donald Trump revived a legal maneuver unused for nearly half a century to cancel nearly $5 billion in foreign aid and peacekeeping funds. The president informed Congress late Thursday that he would proceed with what is known as a pocket rescission, a tactic that allows a president to present a funding clawback so late in the fiscal year that Congress has little chance to stop it, according to exclusive reporting from the New York Post.
The legality of Trump's manoeuvre is on shaky ground. The Government Accountability Office, Congress's own watchdog, has long argued that pocket rescissions are illegal under the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which limits a president's ability to unilaterally block spending. But Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought and General Counsel Mark Paoletta have noted in the past that Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter set precedents in the 1970s.
#pocket-rescission #foreign-aid #peacekeeping #impoundment-control-act #government-accountability-office
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