Trump, GOP prep next chapter in spending cuts agenda

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is about to embark on the next phase of its plans to downsize the federal government, submitting a formal request to Congress to take back unspent funds in out-of-favor areas and fleshing out the president’s “skinny” fiscal 2026 budget proposals.

Ahead of the first House Appropriations Committee markups scheduled next week, President Donald Trump’s budget office is expected to deliver as soon as Friday supplemental information on agency budget requests for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

And then early next week, likely Tuesday, the Office of Management and Budget is expected to send up its delayed rescissions request, which would claw back over $9 billion in previously appropriated funds for foreign assistance and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The moves come after House passage of the “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation package so as not to distract from that all-out-effort, which came to fruition at the end of last week with a narrow party-line vote.

Speaker Mike Johnson characterized the White House proposals as a shift in focus from the mandatory side of the budget — which the reconciliation bill would cut — to discretionary spending on the operating expenses of federal agencies that the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency has tried to slash.

“The House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand,” Johnson, R-La., wrote in a statement posted on the social platform X.

Musk in his own message on X announced his departure from DOGE late Wednesday, which had long been expected though it comes a day after he criticized Trump’s reconciliation bill for not doing enough to contain spending.

Musk wrote that the DOGE “mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

Johnson wrote that once the rescissions package is submitted, the “House will act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts” as well as “use the appropriations process to swiftly implement President Trump’s 2026 budget.”

Appropriations kickoff

House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., will kick off his panel’s markups June 5 when subcommittees take up the Agriculture and Military Construction-VA bills. He’s got an aggressive timetable scheduled in an attempt to mark up all 12 fiscal 2026 bills by the August recess. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, wants to begin her chamber’s later in June.

Trump’s slimmer budget release delivered May 2 had basic topline information along with key changes from current funding levels highlighted, which helped appropriators get started with their budget hearings.

But they’ve been waiting for more detailed programmatic information, which sources said they’ll get probably on Friday — though it wasn’t clear how detailed that would be.

Some sources believe something like the annual budget “appendix” could be sent to lawmakers, which contains proposed appropriations language and explanations, as well as tables comparing current levels to fiscal 2026 proposed funding. Others said the level of detail may fall short of that volume — which ran 1,300 pages last year, for instance — though shorter summaries for each agency may be provided.

The statutory deadline for presidents to submit their budget requests is the first Monday in February, though that deadline is often missed, particularly in the first year of a presidential term.

House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro said the second Trump administration is breaking records in that regard, however.

“If President Trump released his full budget request today, it would be the latest in history,” DeLauro, D-Conn., said in a statement. “The Trump administration has made it abundantly clear that, while they illegally freeze and withhold federal funds promised to the American people, they have no interest in demonstrating what activities they believe the government should actually provide funds for.”

While the fiscal 2026 bills are being written, lawmakers will have Trump’s rescissions package — as well as Senate action on the reconciliation bill — to contend with.

The administration first teased details of the rescissions package in April — $9.3 billion that would be clawed back mostly from foreign aid accounts, with about $1 billion nixed from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

But they backed off from formal submission at the time in order to focus on reconciliation, as once Trump sends lawmakers his “special message” outlining the cuts, it triggers a limited period lawmakers have to approve the plan. Legislation to implement the cuts can be amended, but it can’t be filibustered in the Senate and is subject to expedited consideration.

The law requires Congress to act on a rescissions bill within 45 calendar days during a “continuous session of Congress,” excluding days when either chamber is adjourned for more than 3 days. That timeline may be moot given Johnson can bring a package to the floor as quickly as he wants, however.

In the Senate, a House-passed bill would be subject to a motion to discharge the measure from committee, requiring a simple majority. Then debate would be limited to 10 hours, but a “vote-a-rama” on amendments could then ensue.

In an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, OMB Director Russ Vought said if all goes smoothly, it won’t be the last rescissions package the White House sends to Congress.

“We will send more if they pass it,” Vought said. “We’ve had good conversations to make sure that they knew what was coming, they had some input as to changes that could be made to make it something that could pass the House, and we’re excited for that to occur next week.”

Legalizing impoundments

The idea for using the rescissions process, which is outlined in the 1974 budget law that restricts presidential impoundments of appropriated funds, grew out of talks lawmakers held with Musk and Vice President JD Vance earlier this year.

Republicans in both chambers felt the administration would be on more solid legal footing by sticking to the law, which requires Congress to review and approve any impoundments, or cancellations of unobligated funds.

That came after early DOGE and OMB efforts to freeze funds for purposes the administration didn’t agree with — foreign aid, clean energy projects, diversity initiatives and the like — met with widespread legal opposition and were in several cases blocked in court.

The catch is that getting the cuts through Congress isn’t a sure thing with Republicans’ thin majorities in each chamber; when Trump attempted something similar in 2018, the $15 billion package barely made it through the House and was blocked in the Senate.

Collins, who voted against the 2018 package, has said she wants to carefully review the foreign aid cuts in particular before signing off.

Examples of foreign aid projects the administration said it wants to cancel include: $6 million for energy efficiency programs in Mexico, $4 million for migrants in Colombia, $4 million for research into legume systems, $3 million for Iraqi “Sesame Street,” nearly $1.2 million for LGBTQ programs, and $1 million for a voter identification program in Haiti.

And the roughly $1 billion in CPB cuts would hit National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, with whom Trump has a long-running beef over perceived liberal bias, which the networks deny. On May 1 he issued an executive order directing CPB to freeze all grants to NPR and PBS; NPR responded on Wednesday with a lawsuit challenging the order’s legality.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has argued to cut foreign aid and funding for NPR and PBS, was enthusiastic about the rescissions move.

“Foreign aid and NPR/CPB on the chopping block,” Greene wrote on X Monday morning. “Personally I want to pass DOGE cuts every single week until the bloated out of control government is reigned back in.”

Greene is also among those DOGE supporters who support earmarks in appropriations bills, arguing they are an acceptable use of taxpayer dollars if used in the right places.

She’s submitted $62 million in requests to House appropriators, the largest being $32.5 million for water and sewer infrastructure upgrades in Walker County, Ga. “Many of these citizens do not have access currently to safe drinking water and this project will eliminate the problem by making vital infrastructure improvements across the county,” Greene wrote on her website.