House Republicans push for spending cancellations as Elon Musk and conservatives demand deeper budget cuts

And you thought you had just figured out what reconciliation means in Congressional budget terms Here s a new vocabulary term rescissions You might not be able to spell it But I can tell you what it does A rescissions bill rescinds money which Congress has already allocated ex post facto For simplicity I often describe rescissions measure as spending cancellations Congress appropriated money Then under a recissions bill Congress claws back dollars it previously appropriated It s kind of like a reverse appropriation And you thought that in elementary school there were no takebacks TRUMP SENDS BILLION DOGE CUTS PROPOSAL TO CONGRESS TARGETING NPR PBSPresidential administrations send budget requests to Congress This is the opposite An administration can send a recissions request to Congress too And that s what Budget Director Russ Vought is doing this week House Speaker Mike Johnson R-La is intent on moving fast I'd like to turn it around as hastily as feasible announced Johnson There may be multiple rescissions packages coming and we ll process them as fleetly as we can It s a big priority for me Congressional conservatives and Elon Musk were not pleased with the relative paucity of spending cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill Musk stated CBS he was disappointed in the act Which increases the budget deficit not decreases it And it undermines the work that the DOGE band is doing commented Musk about the hallmark of President Trump s agenda By Tuesday morning the world s richest man incinerated the bill on X and chastised the bulk Republicans in Congress Musk characterized the provision as a disgusting abomination He lectured the House Republicans who voted yes declaring you know you did wrong SCOOP HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS DRAWS BATTLE LINES AS WHITE HOUSE READIES B DOGE SPENDING CUTSDOGE initially set a goal of unearthing trillion in spending cuts It then slashed the threshold to trillion DOGE eventually homed in on about billion in cuts by the end of next year And several of those cuts aren t even in effect because Congress has the power of the purse That s where Congress comes in with a prospective rescissions package Largest part Republicans are appreciative of the efforts by DOGE and Musk I think this is the beginning and the whole conversation in Congress is changed because of it commented Rep Mike Flood R-Neb on Fox But DOGE evaluated discretionary spending Congress has the discretion to spend or not spend certain money each year That comes through the annual appropriations process That s why GOPers are now using their discretion They intend to unwind selected of that spending with a rescission plan But the largest percentage of federal spending by about two to one is tied to entitlements like Medicare Medicaid and Social Defense plus interest on the debt That spending is called mandatory House Republicans tried to address that slightly in the Big Beautiful Bill since it dealt with Medicaid spending But cuts to federal departments lie in the appropriations realm and falls on the discretionary side of the ledger However discretionary cuts via the Big Beautiful Bill weren t going to happen Much of what DOGE has looked at is the discretionary spending disclosed Flood This is far more complicated than just doing it in reconciliation WHITE HOUSE SENDING BILLION DOGE CUTS PACKAGE TO CONGRESS NEXT WEEKAnd so here we are with Republicans in Congress looking at the first major rescissions plan since The House Freedom Caucus strongly supports these critical rescissions and we will patronage as a large number of more rescissions packages the White House can send us in the coming weeks and months explained the Freedom Caucus in a comment There is no excuse for a Republican House not to advance the first DOGE rescissions package the same week it is presented to Congress then expeditiously send it for passage in the Republican Senate so President Trump can sign it into law The law requires the president to spend money which Congress approves However there are a few loopholes where a President can impound money and not spend it GOP REBELS FIRE WARNING SHOT IN SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN NO DOGE NO DEALOn CNN Vought suggested that the Impoundment Control Act of allows for a procedure called pocket rescissions later in the year to be able to bank particular of these savings without the bill truly being passed Vought signaled that President Trump would likely lean on that tool But he wants to start with an initial rescissions request A recissions plan requires a simple majority to pass the House And believe it or not a simple majority in the Senate There s no -vote requirement to break a filibuster Moreover the motion to proceed to start debate on a recessions package is privileged That means the Senate only demands votes to begin the process Countless motions to proceed in the Senate need yeas and can be subject to a filibuster President Trump formally routed his recissions request to Capitol Hill on Tuesday It aims to trim billion dollars from residents broadcasting and foreign aid programs All of this is money which Musk targeted in his DOGE reviews But these cuts only count if Congress approves them I want make sure you take the first tranche and see if it passes reported Vought on the targeted set of proposed spending reductions The wider you do in terms of a package the harder it is to pass And if it doesn't pass this is the real world And we will lose flexibility that we have to use executive tools to find other strategies to make the DOGE cuts permanent SPEAKER JOHNSON SETS EYES ON CUTTING EXECUTIVE SPENDING VOWS TO TAKE A 'BLOWTORCH' TO THE 'REGULATORY STATE'Lawmakers are starting to process the rescissions proposal Especially since Republicans often talk a good meeting about slashing spending We'll see if Congress can step up to the plate declared Rep Chip Roy R-Tex noting the political consequences of not green lighting the rescissions package Members will have to go campaign on why they want to continue to fund PBS NPR and a whole bunch of foreign approach and foreign funding that bulk Americans don't like So you go explain it Rep Don Bacon R-Neb represents one of the most-Democratic leaning districts in the country He worries about the PBS and NPR cuts I have a great rapport with Nebraska General Radio and TV I think they've been great to work with And so that would be one I hope they don't put in noted Bacon Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins R-Maine flagged reductions to PEPFAR short for the President s Urgency Plan for AIDS Relief I consider that to be possibly the preponderance achieving society fitness effort that has ever been used in Africa and other parts of the world So I do not backing the reduction in PEPFAR revealed Collins It s unclear whether this opening bid to cut spending minimal as it is can make it through Congress Lots of Republicans will sweat this And these are just negligible cuts Republicans extolled the work of DOGE But if they want to eliminate spending they have to put their vote where their favorite activity is We ll know more in a limited weeks whether Republicans can approve the recissions package and rescind what specific characterize as wasteful spending Otherwise they may need to rescind those campaign promises