US President Donald Trump announced in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson that he will not spend $4.9 billion in foreign aid approved by Congress - effectively cutting the budget by bypassing the legislature, BTA reported, citing the Associated Press
The letter was published on the "Ex" account of the White House Office of Budget Management.
Trump's move is based on a method not used in nearly half a century, known as pocket rescission. To this end, the president submits a request to Congress at the very end of the fiscal year not to spend the approved funds, and thus the legislative body has a 45-day period during which it is not allowed to dispose of the money. Thus, the funds will practically remain unused, since in the United States the fiscal year ends at the end of September.
The letter states that the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will cut these funds from the budget, which is in line with one of the president's announced goals for reducing international aid provided by Washington.
The last time "taking back the purse strings" was implemented in 1977 by then-President Jimmy Carter, and according to the Trump administration, this is a completely legal method. But if such moves become standard White House practice, it could bypass Congress on key spending issues and take away some of the House and Senate's control over the budget, the Associated Press notes.
According to the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the president has the right to propose the cancellation of funds approved by Congress. The legislature could then vote on a resolution to cancel them, but by proposing to cancel this expenditure so soon before September 30, the White House is effectively making sure that the money will not be spent and lost.
US Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noam said on Monday that there had been a security breach at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is facing drastic budget cuts and is set to close, Reuters reported.
In her statement, the minister did not give further details about the nature of the breach, but blamed the agency's staff and added that she had fired 23 employees.
Noam said the hack had endangered "the entire department and the country as a whole", but at the same time said that "no American citizens were directly affected". She added that "there was no leak of confidential data from the department's computer network".
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the matter.