Issued on: May
8, 2018
QUOTE
Our moral duty to the
taxpayer requires us to make our government leaner and more accountable.
President Donald J.
Trump
REQUEST FOR
RESCISSIONS: President Donald J. Trump is requesting that Congress rescind
billions of dollars in excessive spending.
·
President Trump is
requesting that Congress rescind more than $15 billion in budget authority, in
line with his commitment to use every tool at his disposal to rein in
out-of-control Federal spending.
o The President’s request is the first of
several upcoming rescissions packages aimed at cutting Federal spending.
o President Trump is proposing the largest
single rescissions request in history pursuant to the Congressional Budget and
Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA).
·
Under the ICA, the
President has the authority to request rescissions and his proposals are
eligible for expedited consideration by Congress.
o Democratic and Republican Presidents have used
the ICA to propose nearly $76 billion in spending cuts since the law was
enacted.
o Upon the passage of the ICA in 1974, each
President from Gerald Ford to Bill Clinton successfully used the ICA to rescind
Federal funds.
CONFRONTING
IRRESPONSIBLE SPENDING: The President’s rescissions request puts American
taxpayers first by addressing irresponsible Federal spending.
·
President Trump’s
first rescissions package targets spending that is unnecessary, unused, or
cannot be used for its original purpose.
o Some of the funds included in the President’s
request were appropriated many years ago, but have never been used.
·
At the President’s
direction, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) worked to identify
wasteful spending that should be rescinded.
·
Funds in President
Trump’s first proposed rescissions package include:
o $4.3 billion from the Advanced Technology
Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which has not made a loan since 2011.
o $523 million from the Title 17 Innovative
Technology Loan Guarantee Program, which had its authority to make new loan
guarantees lapse in 2011.
o $800 million from the Center for Medicare and
Medicaid Innovation, which is in excess of the funds needed in fiscal years
(FY) 2018 or 2019 and will receive a new appropriation of $10 billion in 2020.
o $252 million in excess funds remaining from
the 2015 Ebola outbreak response, an epidemic the World Health Organization
declared to be over in 2016.
o $133 million from the Railroad Unemployment
Insurance Extended Benefits program that expired in 2012.
o $148 million from the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service, including funds for outbreak response for disease incidents
that have been resolved.
