A group of nine Republican senators has introduced a White House proposal to rescind $15 billion in federal spending, putting pressure on reluctant GOP leaders to take up the measure.
The bill would cut funding that has not been spent, much of it unused money from the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP.
The senators named the bill the Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act, which takes aim at Democrats who have claimed the cuts would directly hurt CHIP.
Republicans have argued the money can no longer be used and is sitting dormant in the CHIP budget. And the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has determined the $7 billion in CHIP cuts will not impact the program’s coverage.
Authorization has run out for the money, and it can’t be spent.
President Trump sent a rescission package to Congress on May 7 after getting criticized for signing the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending package, which increased the deficit. While the rescission package was received positively in the House, enthusiasm has faded in the face of Democratic attacks and the looming midterm elections.
Still, the Senate’s fiscal hawks want to push the legislation onto the agenda.
“Our country doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said in a statement. “While these cuts won’t solve our debt problems … they are an important step in the right direction by eliminating unnecessary and excessive spending throughout the federal government.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would consider a rescission package if the House can pass it.
But it has not made it onto the House schedule, even though GOP leaders suggested this month they would move it quickly.
Democrats have beaten down GOP enthusiasm in part by pairing their criticism of the rescission proposal with the Republican tax reform bill, which they have argued is a handout to big corporations who got a major rate reduction.
“These Republican rescissions show the hypocrisy of a GOP Congress that insists on tight budgets for children and families while handing enormous, unpaid-for giveaways to corporations and the wealthiest,” said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Democrats have also complained the cuts include taking $252 million from a fund to combat the Ebola virus, which became a small but growing threat in the United States in 2014 but has made a resurgence in some African nations. There have been no reports of Ebola entering the United States yet.
“God forbid this funding is rescinded and Ebola outbreaks re-emerge,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday. “It would actually be President Trump’s fault. The president should withdraw his rescission request for this funding.”
The rescission package can pass the Senate with a simple majority, meaning the Senate can pass it if they can get the support of all of its 50 voting GOP members.
Republican fiscal hawks signaled Friday they plan to step up the pressure on their own party to support the bill.
“A great advantage of a rescissions package is that Democrats are unable to filibuster it, which means that if Republicans stand together we can start cutting back on unnecessary spending,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “We need to do this, and far more — Congress should take advantage of every opportunity to reduce our national debt, including saving money that doesn’t need to be spent.”
