White House Delivers Rescissions Package to Congress

Action: Proposed Rescissions of Budgetary Resources (May 28, 2025)

What it does: The White House transmitted to Congress a package of 22 proposed rescissions of funding, mostly for fiscal year (FY) 2025, totaling $9.4 billion in spending cuts to various State Department programs, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United States Institute of Peace, and other international assistance programs. Some of the largest rescissions include: $900 million for USAID Global Health Programs that fund child and maternal activities and HIV/AIDS control and prevention, including the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) started under President George W. Bush; $800 million for migration and refugee assistance; $1.65 billion for Economic Support Fund programs that address economic development needs abroad; $437 million for International Organizations and Program funding that largely goes to the United Nations; $2.5 billion for USAID development assistance programs; $460 million for international assistance to Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia; $496 million for international disaster assistance; and $535 million in annual advance appropriations that CPB received for both FY2026 and FY2027, for a total of almost $1.1 billion in cuts to the CPB.

Key Insights

• While submission of the rescissions package is legally consistent with the provisions of the Impoundment Control Act, it may also be seen as part of the Administration’s push to assert its authority over the Congressional appropriations process via impoundment, with White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought repeatedly expressing that the Impoundment Control Act governing this process is unconstitutional.
• In its transmittal letter, the Administration claims that the “wasteful and unnecessary spending” eliminated by the rescissions includes “programs that are antithetical to American interests, such as funding the World Health Organization, LGBTQI+ activities, ‘equity’ programs, radical Green New Deal-type policies, and color revolutions in hostile places around the world.”
• The Administration also alleges “spending on CPB subsidizes a public media system that is politically biased and is an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.”
• Congress has 45 calendar days to consider the President’s rescissions request, with the package only requiring House passage and a simple majority in the Senate (instead of 60 votes) to pass. If the votes fail, the spending remains in place. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said, “This rescissions package reflects many of DOGE’s findings and is one of the many legislative tools Republicans are using to restore fiscal sanity. Congress will continue working closely with the White House to codify these recommendations, and the House will bring the package to the floor as quickly as possible.”
• Some Republican Senators have raised concerns about certain cuts in the package, including Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) about the PEPFAR and global health program cuts and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) regarding cuts to rural radio and emergency communications in his state.
• During the President’s first Administration in 2018, Republicans in Congress attempted to pass a rescission package of $15 billion in spending cuts, only to lose the vote in the Senate when Senator Collins and Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) voted against it.