Pocket Rescission Complicates Shutdown Talks as Deadline Looms

Factions are popping up in Congress as the clock ticks to avert a government shutdown at the end of September. 

Government funding expires at midnight September 30, and there are disagreements over how to proceed internally among Republicans and also with Democrats.

To complicate matters is the White House’s use of pocket rescissions to claw back Congressionally appropriated funds. Recently President Trump canceled $5 billion in foreign aid using a pocket rescission, the first time that has been done in over 50 years. 

White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought insisted the move is lawful and hinted more cuts are coming. 

“If Congress has given us authority that is too broad, then we’re going to use that authority aggressively to protect the American people,” said Vought at the National Conservatism Conference.

But it has upset Democrats and even some Republicans complicating the appropriations process. They say the president “thumbed his nose” at Congress with the pocket rescission. 

“Congress alone bears the constitutional responsibility for funding our government, and any effort to claw back resources outside of the appropriations process undermines that responsibility,” wrote Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a senior appropriator, on X. 

Leadership Open to Clean Resolution 

Meanwhile, both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders signaled they are open to a 45-day or longer clean continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown. 

 However, Senator Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has taken a hardline stance against any resolutions if they contain policy measures and insists the resolution is clean.

That’s a point that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) may get behind. 

“My hope would be that whatever that CR looks like that it’s clean and that it enables us to buy some time to get a regular appropriations process done,” said Senator Thune. 

Complicating things on the House side though are the hardline conservatives who want a lengthy stopgap bill. By running the lengthy bill, the White House and OMB Director Vought will have more leeway to shift cash.

And the fuzzy rules around what’s essential in a shutdown, could also lead President Trump to shutter programs he’s not a fan of. 

“If you think they’re going to let it go to waste, they’re not,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK). “That’s why, if I were a Democrat, I would prefer a deal to a shutdown.”