Trump cancels $810 million in Congress-approved spending 5 days before it expires, too late for a congressional vote

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (Sen-R Maine) calls it unlawful and says she got no warning; GAO has said the maneuver is illegal.

The request. On Friday, Sept. 25, OMB Director Russell Vought sent Speaker Mike Johnson (Rep-R Louisiana) a request to cancel $810 million that Congress had already approved. The tool. It is a "pocket rescission": a request to cancel funds, filed so late that Congress's 45-day review window runs past the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. The money lapses with no vote. The money. Four cuts account for $718 million of the total. The source reporting does not itemize the other $92 million. * HHS aid for refugees, asylees and unaccompanied minors: $567 million * International education grants and fellowships, labeled 'Woke International Education' by the White House: $70 million * HUD programs: $56 million * Education Department grants for migrant students: $25 million Where it stands. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (Sen-R Maine) called the move unlawful and said she got no warning. Vice Chair Patty Murray (Sen-D Washington) called it "theft from the American people."

What the $567 million refugee cut takes, and what nobody knows:

It comes from $6.3 billion Congress passed in fiscal 2024, spendable only through Sept. 30, 2026.
The request does not say how much of it was already promised to grantees.
The refugee office was still posting new grant offers on Aug. 4 and Aug. 5, 2026.

ContextImpoundment (a president holding back money Congress approved) is limited by a 1974 law, the Impoundment Control Act. Under it, a president can ask Congress to cancel money it already approved, and lawmakers get 45 days to vote on the request. This request was filed Friday, Sept. 25, with five days left before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, so the money lapses before that window closes, with or without a vote. The Government Accountability Office (Congress's nonpartisan auditor) has concluded the maneuver is illegal. Trump used the same move a year earlier to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid. Before that, the last president to do it was Jimmy Carter, in 1977. The Supreme Court let that one go ahead 6-3 on Sept. 26, 2025, in an emergency order resting on the president's foreign-affairs power. It said the order "should not be read as a final determination on the merits," so no court has ruled the maneuver legal, and GAO's finding has not stopped it.