Overview
Rescission Rethink: The White House is pumping the brakes on submitting its rescissions package, which is expected to include nearly $10 billion in cuts to public broadcasting, the State Department, and other federal agencies and programs. As Congress works through its reconciliation bill, this indefinite postponement will allow it to focus all its energy on reconciliation and removes the potential 45-day clock which begins once a rescissions package has been submitted. While the rescissions package waits on the back burner, the White House is now exploring potential legal challenges to the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which restricts the President's ability to decide how funds approved by Congress are spent. This would pave the way for court action, the White House hopes will confirm the Administration's authority to allocate appropriated funds according to its own priorities.
While the White House considers its next steps, DOGE continues to move apace in its effort to cut what it sees as wasteful discretionary spending. According to data gathered from DOGE's tracker, between April 16 and May 14, DOGE claims it has cancelled an additional 64 leases, 2,029 contracts, and 2,932 grants. However, multiple news organizations and think tanks have reported that many of the claimed cuts are misleading or inaccurate.
FY26 Moves: Appropriators continued making headway on FY26 this week, hearing from numerous agency officials on their departments' budgetary needs this year. Agency heads paying a visit to appropriations committees this week included Health and Human Services, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Labor, and Veterans Affairs. Testimony from administration officials will continue into next week as well.
A common theme emerging from these hearings is that Republicans are not as eager to cut agency budgets by as much as the Administration would like. For example, House Appropriations Interior-Environment Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-ID) noted that the Subcommittee likely could not agree to the $5 billion cut proposed to the Environmental Protection Agency in the President’s skinny budget, echoing comments from Senate Appropriations Interior-Environment Subcommittee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who called the proposal "unserious." More insight into the Administration's budget stance is incoming, as House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) stated that he expects receiving additional budget details from each department by early June, further aiding appropriators as they craft their funding bills.
While we still expect the House to mark as close as possible to the President's proposed overall topline and division of defense and non-defense allocation, Republican pushback on the scale of cuts will likely result in a higher spending level in the final package than the White House proposed. Meanwhile, Senate appropriators are expected to mark higher than their House counterparts. A final package (in the fall) will likely be a compromised between the two.
Deadlines Drumbeat: While appropriators hear from agency officials on FY26 budget priorities, deadlines for member requests are rapidly approaching for subcommittees (and some have already passed). Notably, programmatic requests for House CJS, FSGG, Interior and Environment, and National Security are due today by 6:00 pm EST. Senators have slightly more time to get requests in, with deadlines not arriving until next week and the week following. Again, these deadlines are now only for member/senator requests to the committee and not outside requests to member offices. Those deadlines expired. However, if you are tracking your request submitted to a member/senator office, you are likely in regular communication with them now as they prepare to submit their priorities to the committee.
Guidance and upcoming deadlines for House member requests can be found here, with Senate guidance and deadlines found here.
