The elimination or reduction in appropriations by the President, contingent upon congressional approval.
Money, Money, Money
The annual appropriations process requires Congress to pass, and the President to sign, funding bills into law by the end of each federal fiscal year. While Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse and thus has the power to determine how much to spend on federal programs, it is the Executive Branch that ultimately dispenses most federal funds. As a result, appropriations bills are negotiated by Congress after receiving input from the Executive Branch.
Presidents dating back to Thomas Jefferson have attempted to circumvent congressional spending priorities through the use of impoundment, which occurs when the Executive Branch does not spend funds previously appropriated by Congress. Due to perceived abuses of this power by President Richard Nixon, Congress limited the President’s impoundment power with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974, which created the shared power of rescission.
Rescission allows Congress and the President to decide together that appropriated funds no longer need to be spent. The President initiates the process by sending a detailed rescission request to Congress. Each president between 1974 and 2000 proposed rescissions, totaling over $75 billion, and Congress agreed to roughly a third of those requests. But the process fell out of favor. Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden did not propose any rescissions.
Once the President sends a rescission request to Congress, the appropriations committees have 25 days to consider a rescission bill. Alternatively, both chambers can opt to skip the committee process by voting to discharge the bill, advancing the legislation directly to the floor without committee approval. A rescission bill only needs a simple majority to pass. If Congress fails to act within 45 days to affirm a rescission request, the President must spend the funds originally proposed for rescission.
Ask for Forgiveness, Not Permission
In June 2025, President Donald Trump sent the first rescissions package of his second term to Congress. It targeted $9.4 billion in funding for NPR, PBS, USAID, and foreign aid programs. The package was narrowly approved in July at the very end of the 45-day window with only Republican votes after President Trump whipped members in both chambers.
President Trump sent Congress a second package in September 2025, known as a “pocket rescission,” that proposed eliminating an additional $4.9 billion in foreign aid funding. A pocket rescission would allow the President to sidestep Congress by sending a rescission request in the final 45 days of a fiscal year and withholding the funding in question until the administration’s authority to spend it expires at the end of the fiscal year. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and legal scholars argued that the tactic is illegal.
Lawsuits stemming from this pocket rescission quickly landed at the Supreme Court. The conservative majority on the Court blessed President Trump’s unprecedented pocket rescission for that particular case.
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What is a policy rider? How long is a legislative day? Political jargon can be headache-inducing. But your ability to understand how Washington works could significantly impact your business. Wonkology is a monthly alert from the Thompson Coburn Lobbying & Policy group. In each edition, we will decode Washington lingo by giving you a straightforward definition of a political term that is in the news.
