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White House Declares $4.9B in Foreign Aid Unilaterally Canceled in End-Run Around Congress’ Funding Power
President Donald Trump threw a grenade into September government funding negotiations on Capitol Hill on Friday, declaring the unilateral power to cancel billions of dollars in foreign aid by using a so-called pocket rescission. Escalating the administration’s assault on Congress’s funding prerogatives, the White House budget office announced Friday morning that Trump has canceled $4.9 billion through the gambit that Congress’s top watchdog and many lawmakers argue is an illegal end-run around their “power of the purse.”