Because the enactment of the ICA in 1974, presidents of each events have taken benefit of the legislation’s processes for reducing federal spending. Congress has rescinded tens of millions of {dollars} of funding on the request of presidents throughout the political spectrum, and presidents have used the deferral procedures to delay spending for quite a few packages, together with these within the Treasury Department, the Department of Energy and the Department of State.
Given present Republican control of the presidency, Home and Senate, these ICA procedures appear to supply an easy path to scale back federal spending in compliance with federal legislation. However whereas Trump has expressed support for utilizing the same, simple-majority reconciliation course of for implementing policy proposals corresponding to tax cuts that might increase the federal deficit, Trump has expressed no such assist for the simple-majority rescission course of for reducing federal spending or the deferral course of for attaining financial savings underneath the ICA. As an alternative, on the primary day of his presidency Trump issued government orders directing companies to withhold congressionally appropriated funding for foreign aid, energy programs and sanctuary cities. And one week later, the president unilaterally “pause[d]” grants, loans, and different monetary help, sparking a lawsuit by nonprofit organizations, public well being leaders, and small companies and fear and confusion from many recipients of federal funding. Why?
Possibly Trump doesn’t wish to use the ICA’s procedures as a result of when he did so throughout his first administration, he could not get a easy majority of Congress to comply with do away with funds for the packages he proposed for rescission, although Republicans had unified control of the federal authorities. Possibly he fears that, once more, members of this new Congress or their constituents won’t agree that the packages he desires to chop are “wasteful.”
