ASN NEWS USA — SPECIAL REPORT

WASHINGTON (ASN NEWS USA)— The Trump administration is moving to cancel $810 million in funding already approved by Congress for refugees, immigrants, and other services it calls unnecessary, according to a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget.

The White House sent a notification letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson late Friday proposing the cuts through a rare budgetary tool known as a pocket rescission. The package targets programs across the Departments of Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, and the Justice Department.

The largest cut, $567 million, would hit the Refugee and Entrant Assistance account, which funds Office of Refugee Resettlement programs under HHS. The administration also proposes rescinding $10 million of the $50 million for Minority Business Development Agency programs, which it says fund “unconstitutional race-based purposes.”

Once rescissions are submitted, the funds are paused while Congress has 45 days to act. But with the fiscal year ending September 30, the timing essentially sets the money up to be canceled.

The White House calls it targeting “the most harmful government spending.” Critics, including Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, say the move undermines Congress’s constitutional power of the purse and amounts to an illegal line-item veto. Collins said lawmakers received no warning before the announcement.

Stay tuned to ASN News USA for continuing coverage.

Reported by ASN News USA. Visit asnnewsusa.com or follow @ASNNewsUSA for updates.

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