President Trump invoked a rare and legally contested power Friday to cancel $810 million in congressionally approved spending, targeting programs for illegal immigrants and a slate of federal initiatives explicitly organized around race and DEI.
The request hits 11 funding pools at seven departments and agencies. It also landed with just five days left in the fiscal year. That’s the point of the disputed “pocket rescission” maneuver: the money runs out before Congress gets its normal 45 days to consider the cuts.
The biggest piece is $567 million at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for services to refugees, asylees, unaccompanied minors, and other non-citizens.
The White House called them “pro-illegal immigration programs” and said the money is no longer needed because illegal border crossings have fallen sharply.
But immigration spending was only part of the package.
Several of the rescissions hit programs explicitly organized around race or ethnicity.
The administration wants to rescind $10 million from the Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency, which helps minority-owned businesses. The White House pointed to a 2024 federal court ruling that found the agency’s presumption of social disadvantage based on race or ethnicity unconstitutional.
Another $5 million would come from HHS’s Office of Minority Health.
The White House highlighted grants from that office addressing racial trauma among black youth, health disparities among black and Latino youth, a George Washington University fellowship promoting health equity and DEI, and a $1.5 million project addressing the effects of redlining and structural racism.
HUD housing counseling takes a much larger hit, with $56 million targeted.
The administration said the program had funded groups including UnidosUS, the National Urban League, and Housing Action Illinois, criticizing their work on structural racism, racial justice, and other DEI priorities.
Then there is the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, slated to lose $15 million.
The office’s mission included “preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions” and restoring racial stability. The Trump administration shut it down earlier this year and now accuses the office of promoting critical race theory and gender ideology rather than carrying out that mission.
The package goes beyond those programs.
The administration identified $28 million in HHS research funding it wants canceled, pointing to grants involving transgender health care, racial disparities, and a $50,000 project to develop a research agenda addressing racism in emergency medicine. Another $70 million would be pulled from international education programs, including programs the White House said had funded research involving queer and transgender issues abroad.
Other cuts include $25 million for migrant student programs, $25 million across two DHS programs providing services or legal assistance to non-citizens, and $9 million for a Treasury program providing debt relief to foreign countries in exchange for conservation commitments.
The fight now turns to whether Trump can make the cuts this way.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, blasted the move. Nobody called. Nobody asked. She runs the Senate committee that controls appropriations. But Congress has little to do with five days left in the fiscal year and the House already gone. The money could expire before lawmakers even get a chance to respond.
“Not only is the delay itself an impoundment that was not reported to Congress, but also it is a usurpation of Congress’s appropriations powers,” Collins said. “OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding.”
Normally, Congress gets 45 days to deal with a rescission request. There aren’t 45 days here. Trump sent this one over with five days to go, and the House was already out of session. The Government Accountability Office says the maneuver violates the Impoundment Control Act.
The administration disagrees.
Trump did this last year, too, with roughly $4.9 billion in foreign aid. The Supreme Court declined to stop those cuts in a case that involved the president’s foreign-affairs authority. This one isn’t limited to foreign aid. A big chunk of the money is for domestic programs.
The White House points to Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter as precedent, with Carter doing most of the work for its argument. His clawback request came before the 45-day window expired, leaving Congress time to act. Vought and OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta say that’s enough precedent to make the practice legal, despite the GAO’s position.
The $810 million disappears with the fiscal year in five days. That doesn’t leave much time for a court fight. By the time a judge gets involved, the money could already be gone. And that may be the point.
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