The Biden administration on Wednesday unfroze $27.4 billion in government funding that former President Trump locked up before leaving office.
Last Thursday, Trump used a budgetary legal provision calling on Congress to rescind funds from 73 programs that were fully funded in December’s $2.3 trillion omnibus spending bill. Trump signed the bill into law but complained about many of its provisions.
The budget law allows the president to freeze relevant funds in the program for up to 45 days while Congress considers whether to accept or reject the rescission request to cancel out the programs’ funding.
Congressional Democrats had reacted in fury to Trump’s attempt to even briefly block the programs, which included funds for international COVID-19 vaccination efforts, environmental protection, arts and humanities programs, and a slew of foreign policy initiatives.
“After four years of the Trump Administration diminishing the United States’ place in the world, these rescissions would further eviscerate our global leadership role,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said.
In a Wednesday letter, DeLauro, House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), and House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) called for reforming the budgetary law to prevent such moves in the future.
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