On June 3, President Donald Trump sent a package of $9.4 billion in rescissions to Congress for expedited consideration under Section 1017 of the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) of 1974. The House of Representatives reportedly plans to introduce, debate, and pass a bill to implement the President’s proposed rescissions as soon as next week. The Senate would have until mid-July to send the bill to the President for his signature.  While previous presidents have proposed rescissions, Congress has never fully deployed the ICA’s procedures to rescind appropriated funds.  Because the ICA provides a statutory limit on debate for rescissions bills in the Senate, the recissions process could be a powerful tool for a Congress and a President—when both chambers and the White House are under single-party control—to cut discretionary spending.

The Impoundment Control Act and Rescission Procedure

Congress adopted the ICA in 1974 to limit executive branch authority to decline to spend (“impound”) congressionally appropriated funds.  Until the Nixon Administration, presidents generally viewed appropriation levels as “ceilings” on permissible spending.  If a project came in under budget, an executive branch agency could simply return the leftover funds to the Treasury.  Presidents Truman and Nixon both used this impoundment power aggressively.  The ICA codified an assertion that spending of congressionally appropriated funds was not optional, requiring the president to send a “special message” to Congress specifying the amount of the proposed recission and the justification for why the funds should not be spent, before withholding funds. If Congress does not pass legislation to approve the President’s recommendation within 45 legislative days, the executive branch must then spend the funds and the President may not propose to rescind them again. 

The ICA specifically limits debate on rescissions bills on the Senate floor to 10 hours, meaning these measures are not subject to the Senate filibuster and may become law if passed by a simple majority vote in both chambers.  A rescissions bill can be amended, but amendments must be germane. If a rescissions measure passes through both chambers of Congress within 45 days of the president’s transmission of the special message, the president may impound the funds.

Congress has never in the 51-year history of the ICA deployed these procedures in full.  Instead, Congress can, and often does, rescind funding through ordinary legislation (including annual appropriations bills that are subject to the Senate filibuster, and budget reconciliation bills, which are not).  In several instances, the Senate has also approved rescission bills by unanimous consent, bypassing the filibuster but also skipping the ICA procedure.

History and Precedent

According to the Congressional Research Service, four presidents have submitted rescissions packages under Section 1017 of the ICA, but the procedure has never successfully been used on a partisan basis. Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter used the rescission authority ten times, but those rescissions were not controversial and passed the Senate by unanimous consent. George H.W. Bush submitted $7.9 billion in rescissions in 1992, which also passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis, with 404 votes in the House and 90 votes in the Senate. In his first term, President Trump proposed $15 billion in rescissions. The measure narrowly passed the House, 210 votes to 206, but failed in the Senate, 48 votes to 50. Consequently, Section 1017 has never successfully been used to rescind funds on a partisan basis. In current case, the President’s proposal would rescind funding from bills signed by his predecessor.