Vought Invents New Scheme to Eviscerate Congress’ Funding Power

White House Budget Director Russell Vought began promoting his newest scheme to run roughshod over the power of the purse granted to Congress by the Constitution.

As primary author of Project 2025, Vought is never at a loss for ways to tear down the government. His latest is pocket rescission. He is going full tilt with it, publicly, even though the Government Accountability Office flatly says it is illegal.

The scheme starts with Donald Trump issuing a formal request to cancel Congressionally appropriate funding. This would resemble a $9.4 billion request he already made to cancel funding appropriated by Congress for public broadcasting and foreign aid.

Vought’s rescission scheme would deliver the request to Congress less than 45 days before the start of the next fiscal year, which is 1 October. Trump would freeze expenditure of the funding no matter what the response from Congress. Having frozen the funds until the end of the fiscal year, at the transition into a new fiscal year the White House would treat the appropriation as expired and therefore never to be spent.

Vought has a history of pushing and exceeding boundaries in this regard. He froze aid to Ukraine during Trump’s first term in office, which was a large part of what led to Trump’s first impeachment trial.

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