Executive Summary

• President Trump has sent a formal rescissions request to Congress that includes 22 proposed budget authority cuts totaling $9.4 billion.
• The package would rescind funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and other international assistance programs.
• The request is the first effort by the Trump Administration to codify the spending cuts identified by the Department of Government Efficiency into law.

Introduction

President Trump has sent a formal rescissions request to Congress that includes 22 proposed budget authority (BA) cuts from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Institute of Peace, and other international assistance programs. The request would rescind $9.4 billion of BA that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimates would reduce budget outlays by the same amount. The request is the first effort by the Trump Administration to codify the spending cuts identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) into law.

What’s in President Trump’s Rescissions Request?

A rescission is a process by which the administration places a 45-day hold on spending certain money that’s been congressionally appropriated while Congress decides if it wants to permanently rescind the money (for more on rescissions, see here).

President Trump’s $9.4-billion rescission request comes from a variety of federal accounts. The largest single area is $2.5 billion of the $3.9 billion appropriated for fiscal year (FY) 2025 for Development Assistance. The next largest rescission – $1.7 billion – comes from FY 2025 appropriations for the Economic Support Fund. Another $1 billion would be rescinded from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CBP). This includes $535 million in advance each for FY 2026 and FY 2027. This amount was the total appropriation for CBP each in FY 2024 and FY 2025; thus, the rescission would effectively eliminate federal funding for CBP.

Proposed Rescission by Account

Source: OMB.

The request would claw back $900 million of the $10 billion appropriated in FY 2025 for global health programs administered by USAID; $800 million of the $3.2 billion appropriated in FY 2025 for migration and refugee assistance; and $496 million of the $4 billion appropriated in FY 2024 for international disaster assistance. In addition, the package would rescind $460 million – the full amount appropriated for FY 2025 – for assistance to Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia, and $437 million – the entire FY 2025 appropriation – for international organizations and programs, including the United Nations (UN) Children’s Fund, the UN Development Program, the UN Population Fund, and the Montreal Protocol.

Some of the smaller rescissions include $125 million of the $1.7 billion appropriated for FY 2025 for USAID operating expenses; $125 million – the full amount appropriated for FY 2025 – for the Clean Technology Fund; $83 million of the $345 million appropriated in FY 2025 for the Democracy Fund; and $15 million of the $57 million appropriated in FY 2025 for the U.S. Institute of Peace.

OMB estimates the rescission package would reduce budget outlays and thus the budget deficit by $9.4 billion. The impact of the rescissions package on the federal budget would be modest. $9.4 billion represents just 0.4 percent of the $2.3 trillion cost of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act making its way through Congress and would represent a 0.5-percent decrease in this year’s projected budget deficit of $1.9 trillion.

Conclusion

Despite the modest size of President Trump’s rescission request, rescission packages can be valuable in helping policymakers eliminate unneeded and unused federal funding. Even rescissions for funding that would otherwise never be spent can prevent policymakers from later using the funds for new spending increases or tax cuts. While rescissions themselves can’t solve the nation’s fiscal challenges, they can be a step in the right direction to cut wasteful spending in the federal budget.