U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is accusing the Trump administration of attempting to undermine Congress and the law in its latest attempt to claw back nearly $5 billion from foreign aid programs.
The Trump administration is using what's known as a "pocket rescission" to do an end-run around Congress by canceling $4.9 billion in foreign aid that the White House labeled as "woke, weaponized and wasteful spending." Most of the funding went to the U.S. Agency for International Development — or USAID, which the administration has largely dismantled — but some went to specific United Nations peacekeeping programs that the White House said were fraught with waste or abuse.
It's been nearly 50 years since a president used the tactic, which could allow the administration to freeze and then cancel funding without congressional approval. Collins, a Republican who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, expressed strong opposition to the move on Friday.
"Article I of the Constitution makes clear that Congress has the responsibility for the power of the purse," Collins said in a statement. "Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law."
Trump's decision to use the pocket rescission is part of the administration's openly discussed plan to wrest more spending control away from Congress. The move is likely to complicate efforts for Republicans to strike a deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown on October 1.
“Instead of this attempt to undermine the law, the appropriate way is to identify ways to reduce excessive spending through the bipartisan, annual appropriations process," Collins said. "Congress approves rescissions regularly as part of this process."
Collins faces reelection in 2026 in what is expected to be one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. Democrats in Maine and nationally are already accusing Collins of failing to use her powerful position on the Appropriations Committee to fight the Trump administration's cuts to scientific research, Medicaid and other programs.
In her statement, Collins pointed to a report from the Government Accountability Office — a nonpartisan congressional watchdog agency — saying that pocket rescissions violate the Impoundment Control Act. That law was enacted during the Nixon administration specifically to limit a president's authority to cancel congressionally approved funding. But Trump's budget director, Russell Vought, has talked openly about challenging the law in court.
Under the normal rescission process, administrations freeze funding for programs for 45 days as Congress reviews the proposed cuts. That's what happened in July when the Trump administration proposed — and the GOP-controlled Congress approved — $9 billion in cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting. Collins and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the only two Republican senators to oppose the cuts.
But with the "pocket rescission," the Trump administration is canceling the $4.9 billion in funding because the federal fiscal year ends before the 45-day clock expires.
The effort is being spearheaded by Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Collins voted to confirm Vought.
The pocket rescission move is likely to further inflame partisan tensions in D.C. with a potential government shutdown looming in October. Democrats have already questioned why the appropriations committees should spend so much time crafting bipartisan budget bills if Republicans are then going to allow the Trump administration to cancel funding.
"No lawmaker should accept this absurd, illegal ploy to steal their constitutional power to determine how taxpayer dollars get spent," Sen. Patty Murray, the top-ranking Democrat and former chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement on Friday. Collins and Murray have had a close working relationship during both of the senators' tenure chairing the committee.
“Legal experts have made clear this scheme is illegal and so have my Republican colleagues," Murray said. "Republicans should not accept Russ Vought’s brazen attempt to usurp their own power. No president has a line item veto — and certainly not a retroactive line item veto. Congress should reject this request and this ridiculous, illegal maneuver — and instead insist on making decisions over spending through the bipartisan appropriations process."
The White House decried some of the targeted programs as "global climate grifts," highlighting specifically a $38.6 million program for biodiversity and low-emissions development in West Africa and $24.5 million for climate resilience in Honduras. It also called a $445 million peacekeeping program a "slush fund to support projects counter to a core security focus, including hybrid energy power generation pilot projects in Nepal and South Sudan.
"The Trump Administration is committed to getting America’s fiscal house in order by cutting government spending that is woke, weaponized, and wasteful," the White House said in a release. "Now, for the first time in 50 years, the President is using his authority under the Impoundment Control Act to deploy a pocket rescission, cancelling $5 billion in foreign aid and international organization funding that violates the President’s America First priorities."
The pocket rescission is likely to be challenged in court. It was unclear on Friday how the Senate Appropriations Committee and its House counterpart would proceed with the latest rescission request, however.
