(A)Political - September 26th

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Trump used a legally contested budget maneuver Friday to cancel $810 million Congress had already approved, timing it so the money expires before lawmakers can respond, drawing fire from Sen. Susan Collins. On Friday evening, the Supreme Court blocked Missouri's Trump-backed congressional map for the third time — locking in the 2022 lines for November — and, hours earlier, let the administration resume running voter rolls through an expanded citizenship database over a three-justice dissent. ICE sweeps through southwest Kansas, arresting workers in cattle plants.

• A Republican Appropriations Chair Says Trump's $810 Million Cut Is Illegal

• SCOTUS Blocked Missouri's Map & Revived the Citizenship Database In One Day

• Kansas Republicans Who Voted to Expand ICE Now Want It to Call First

A Republican Appropriations Chair Says Trump's $810 Million Cut Is Illegal

_{By: Atlas}

President Donald Trump moved Friday evening to cancel $810 million in spending that Congress approved and he signed into law, using a contested budget maneuver with five days left in the fiscal year and drawing a sharp rebuke from the Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a statement posted to X. "The independent Government Accountability Office has concluded that pocket rescissions are unlawful and not permitted by the Impoundment Control Act."

The White House announced the step around 8 p.m. Central time as a "pocket rescission," a request to cancel funds sent so close to the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year that the money lapses before Congress can act.

Nearly $1 billion, or $810 million

The White House release describes the package as "another nearly $1 billion of the most harmful government spending." Its own line items add up to $810 million across 11 rescissions, the total Collins cited.

What the White House is cutting

The largest item is $567 million in Department of Health and Human Services funds for services to refugees, asylees and other noncitizens. The White House said border crossings have fallen so sharply that "the excess funds in this account are being rescinded." It singled out grantees, noting that Global Refuge is "run by Michelle Obama's former policy director" and that Endeavors is run by "Barack Obama's DHS CFO."

The package also cancels $70 million in Education Department grants and fellowships that bring foreign students and faculty to U.S. institutions, which the release labeled "Woke International Education," and $56 million for Department of Housing and Urban Development housing counseling that it said funds groups with "DEI-centric discriminatory agendas."

A $25 million cut targets the Education Department's special programs for migrant students. The White House said the account "has previously funded activities such as an LGBT youth summit for 'migrant students' and 'Therapy for Latinx' workshops."

The remaining items are $28 million in HHS research grants the administration called "overfunded and unaligned"; $15 million for the Justice Department's Community Relations Service, which it called "nefarious"; $10 million for the Minority Business Development Agency; two separate Homeland Security programs, $15 million the release called "Biden-era DHS Programs to Provide Welfare to Illegal Aliens" and $10 million for legal-services grants; a $9 million Treasury debt-relief program tied to tropical forest and coral reef conservation; and $5 million for the HHS Office of Minority Health.

Collins leads bipartisan objections

Collins said Congress received the package "without warning or consultation" and accused the Office of Management and Budget, led by Director Russ Vought, of sitting on the money.

"This move shows that OMB intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law," she wrote.

She called the delay itself an impoundment that was never reported to Congress. "OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding," she wrote, adding: "I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Collins's statement.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the committee's vice chair, called the move "theft from the American people, plain and simple." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Senate Democrats will "challenge Trump's illegal cuts." Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the administration is "once again trying to steal more money promised to communities across the country."

How a pocket rescission works

Under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, passed after President Richard Nixon withheld money for programs he opposed, a president may ask Congress to rescind appropriated funds. Lawmakers then have 45 days to approve the request. If they do not, the money must be spent. The administration argues that a request sent with fewer than 45 days left lets the funds be held until they expire.

Lawyers at the Government Accountability Office, Congress's nonpartisan watchdog, have rejected that reading. "A pocket rescission could allow a president to avoid spending the money regardless of whether Congress approves the rescission request," they wrote. "This would cede Congress's power of the purse by allowing a president to, in effect, change the law by shortening the period of availability for fixed-period funds."

A chair in a close race

The objection comes from a Republican facing one of the country's most competitive Senate races. Collins, a five-term incumbent, faces Democrat Troy Jackson, a former Maine Senate president, on Nov. 3.

Three recent polls split. A Siena poll for The New York Times and the Portland Press Herald, released Thursday, had Collins ahead 49% to 46%. University of New Hampshire and UMass Lowell/YouGov surveys had Jackson ahead, 51% to 47% and 48% to 43%. All three leads fall within the polls' margins of error.

The second in two years

Friday's action is the second pocket rescission of Trump's current term. In August 2025 he used the tactic on $4.9 billion in foreign aid, the first pocket rescission since 1977. The White House cast Friday's package as a continuation: "This year, he is continuing his commitment to the American taxpayer," the release said.

Aid groups sued, and a federal judge ordered the money spent. On Sept. 26, 2025, the Supreme Court stayed that order for the roughly $4 billion still at issue. The unsigned order said the government had "made a sufficient showing that the Impoundment Control Act precludes respondents' suit" under the Administrative Procedure Act, and that "the asserted harms to the Executive's conduct of foreign affairs appear to outweigh the potential harm faced by respondents." The court added that its order "should not be read as a final determination on the merits."

This year's package targets domestic programs. The fiscal year ends Wednesday, and the House is not scheduled to return until after the November midterm elections.

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