President Donald Trump canceled nearly $1 billion in unspent federal funding on Friday night, marking the second “pocket” rescission overall in 50 years, each issued by Trump during his second term.
Trump’s Friday evening rescission strips back $810 million in funding for several immigration and refugee programs, foreign debt-relief programs, grants given to businesses that have minority owners, and various research and education programs. The White House said most of the funding was canceled as it was rooted in aiding illegal immigrants or bolstering diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
The White House framed the rescission package as part of Trump’s “commitment to the American taxpayer,” as he has touted cutting back on government fraud, waste, and abuse through efforts like the Department of Government Efficiency and the White House anti-fraud task force. Trump issued the first pocket rescission in five decades in 2025, canceling $4.9 billion in spending on foreign aid.
The pocket rescission is a mechanism by which the president asks Congress to rescind funding just before the end of the fiscal year, but Trump’s request gives legislators no chance to act before the funds expire.
In normal circumstances, Congress would have 45 days to respond. Friday’s pocket rescission comes just five days before fiscal 2026 ends on Sept. 30.
Many lawmakers argue the mechanism is illegal, including Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME).
In a statement on Friday evening, Collins called the rescission package “the most recent attempt by this Office of Management and Budget to undermine Congress’s Constitutional power of the purse.”
“The independent Government Accountability Office has concluded that pocket rescissions are unlawful and not permitted by the Impoundment Control Act,” Collins wrote. “Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law. I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions.”
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the White House for comment on Collins’s statement.
The White House has pointed to the Impoundment Control Act for its legal justification of the pocket rescissions. In September 2025, the Supreme Court temporarily sided with the Trump administration on its use of the funding cancellation powers, writing in the ruling that the government had made a “sufficient showing” to justify its actions under the law.
House Budget Committee ranking member Brendan Boyle (D-PA) also issued a statement backing Collins’s assessment that the move disregards Congress’s power of the purse, saying the rescission was made “illegally.”
The main cancellation announced Friday night hits $567 million of funding for the Department of Health and Human Services that the White House says “provided services to refugees, asylees, and other non-citizens and put unaccompanied children in harm’s way.”
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The rescissions also canceled appropriated funding that went to programs in the departments of Homeland Security, Education, Justice, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development.
Congressional fiscal hawks have often advocated the use of pocket rescissions as a way to save taxpayer dollars. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), one of the Senate’s biggest fiscal hawks, told Politico last year on the topic that “if we have a way to reduce spending, by all means, we should use it.”