The Trump administration on Friday submitted to Congress an $810 million “rescissions package” proposing cuts to numerous programs for which Congress had already appropriated funds. The package includes two programs in which community colleges participate, though the direct fiscal impact is limited.
Congress typically has 45 days to approve a rescissions package submitted by an administration, in whole or in part. If Congress does not approve of a rescission within this 45-day window, the administration must spend those funds. In this case, however, the administration has submitted a rescissions package within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year, September 30. This is known as a “pocket rescission” because the funds will lapse before Congress has an opportunity to act.
Pocket rescissions are rare and highly controversial, as many see them as a usurpation of Congress’ “power of the purse” under the U.S. Constitution. The Government Accountability Office has deemed the practice “illegal” in the past. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) blasted the rescissions package, calling it “unlawful.” The Trump administration maintains that pocket rescissions are allowed under the Impoundment Control Act.
The Trump administration executed a pocket rescission last year, focused on foreign aid programs. A federal district court initially ruled against the maneuver, but that ruling was stayed by the Supreme Court on procedural grounds and the funds eventually lapsed.
Programs on the block
The package submitted last Friday would eliminate $69.6 million of the $70.3 million appropriated for the Higher Education Act Title VI international education domestic programs. Title VI “Fulbright-Hays” programs, which focus on opportunities for students and scholars abroad, are not affected. The administration claims that these programs have “have deviated from their core mission and instead support woke and wasteful projects.”
The rescissions also include approximately half of the $52 million appropriated for competitive grants within the Special Programs for Migrant Students at the Education Department. Among those grant programs is the College Assistance Migrant Program in which community colleges have participated. The administration states in the rescissions package that these programs “subsidize aliens to come to the United States at the expense of American children and workers.”
