House GOP lawmakers on Tuesday praised the $15 billion rescission package sent by the Trump administration and said they would vote soon to pass it.
“This is all unspent money that has been identified over the last 10 years, sitting in accounts that has never been spent, won’t ever be spent,” Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., said after a closed-door GOP meeting. “Which should be noncontroversial.”
Collins said the measure would come up for a vote, “very soon,” but said a specific time hasn’t been set.
Several lawmakers said they decided to support the package, which would cut funding from previously appropriated programs, after learning it does not alter the recently passed $1.3 trillion spending bill that funds the government for the remainder of fiscal 2018.
“I would have been concerned if the money rescinded had been part of the recently passed omnibus,” Dent said. “But that is not what we are talking about.”
Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, briefed House GOP lawmakers early Tuesday morning on the package.
“He said it’s a meaningful amount, at $15 billion, which will be the largest rescission package in history and it’s money that is just sitting idle. It’s not being spent, so it should be pulled off the table,” Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., said after the meeting.
Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., said rescissions are often part of the appropriations process. He supports the rescission package as does Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., a senior appropriator.
Neither lawmaker objected to the $7 billion in rescissions coming from the Children’s Health Insurance Program because they said, the funds are dormant and cannot be used.
“It’s money you can’t spend and the authorization has run out on it,” Cole told the Washington Examiner.
