Trump administration moves to cut $810 million, including funds for minority-owned businesses
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The funding package also targets housing counseling and other programs as the White House uses a disputed pocket-rescission tactic.
The Trump administration is moving to cancel $810 million in congressionally approved spending through a new round of federal funding cuts, using a rarely invoked tactic known as a pocket rescission. The package includes reductions affecting minority-owned businesses and housing programs, adding to earlier administration actions that have hit Black-owned businesses and Black communities. It was sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson just days before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, leaving Congress little time to act before the money expires.
CNN reported that the cuts span several federal departments and international assistance programs. The largest proposed cancellation is $567 million from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Refugee and Entrant Assistance account, which supports refugee resettlement and services for unaccompanied children. The White House says the money is no longer needed because border crossings have fallen and describes the targeted programs as wasteful.
Other cuts have a direct connection to programs serving minority communities. The administration is seeking to rescind $10 million from the Minority Business Development Agency, which supports minority-owned businesses, along with about $56 million in housing counseling funds and $15 million from the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service.
Under the Impoundment Control Act, a president can ask Congress to rescind spending, and lawmakers normally have 45 days of continuous congressional session to consider the request. Because the fiscal year ends within days, the money could expire before Congress completes that process.
The Government Accountability Office has said pocket rescissions violate the law because they can allow a president to bypass Congress’ constitutional spending authority. The White House argues that the administration is acting within its authority under the same law. Last year, the Supreme Court stayed a lower-court order requiring the administration to obligate foreign-aid funds targeted in a separate pocket rescission, while explicitly saying its order was not a final ruling on the merits. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, has called the latest move unlawful, while Democratic lawmakers have also criticized it. The administration has defended the federal funding cuts as an effort to eliminate spending it considers unnecessary.