The White House budget office said Friday morning that President Donald Trump has canceled $4.9 billion in foreign aid by using a so-called pocket rescission — furthering the administration’s assault on Congress’ funding prerogatives.

The move raises tensions on Capitol Hill as lawmakers face an Oct. 1 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. Many lawmakers from both parties, as well as Congress’ top watchdog, view the maneuver as an illegal end-run around their “power of the purse.”

The Trump administration boldly embraced the strategy on Friday. “Congress can choose to vote to rescind or continue the funds — it doesn’t matter,” an official from the White House budget office said in a statement. “This approach is rare but not unprecedented.”

The White House is allowed to send Congress a clawbacks request and then withhold the cash for 45 days while lawmakers consider whether to approve, reject or ignore the proposal. Because there are less than 45 days left before the end of the fiscal year, Trump’s top budget officials — led by budget chief Russ Vought — argue that they can employ the so-called pocket rescission to withhold the funding until it lapses at month’s end, ensuring its cancellation regardless of what Congress decides.

The pocket rescission request was first reported by the New York Post.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Baseball star Mark Teixeira launched a campaign to fill an open Texas House seat Thursday, the latest celebrity athlete to dive into politics.

Teixeira is running as a Republican in a safe red seat being vacated by GOP Rep. Chip Roy. And he’s already appealing to President Donald Trump in search of a home run on the campaign trail.

“As a lifelong conservative who loves this country, I’m running for Congress to fight for the principles that make Texas and America great,” he wrote in a post on X. “It takes teamwork to win — I’m ready to help defend President Trump’s America First agenda, Texas families, and individual liberty.”

Teixeira was a superstar on the diamond, going yard 409 times in a career that spanned 14 seasons and saw him play for four big league outfits, including the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees. He last played in the 2016 season.

He reached baseball immortality when the Yankees won the World Series in 2009. He was included on the 2022 Hall of Fame ballot but failed to get enough votes from sportswriters to either get elected to the Hall or return to the ballot in future years.

Should he win the seat, he could be a major boon for Republicans in the Congressional Baseball Game, the annual charity event that pits Democrats against Republicans. The GOP has dominated the game in recent years, a gap that a former major leaguer would likely only widen.

Teixeira is leaning into his baseball bona fides.

“In Congress, he’ll bring the same grit, preparation, and competitive spirit that made him a champion in Major League Baseball to fight for Texas—and win,” reads his campaign website.

Roy, a Freedom Caucus member who has served in the House since 2019, is leaving Congress to run for the Texas attorney general post.

Senators will soon get a chance to question Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about Wednesday’s sudden shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kennedy is expected to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4, a person granted anonymity to describe the plans told Blue Light News.

The hearing, which will focus on President Donald Trump’s health agenda, is expected to be formally announced later Thursday, a second person confirmed.

Kennedy’s appearance before the Finance panel was in the works before the White House fired CDC Director Susan Monarez, who is now challenging her ouster. Three top CDC leaders resigned minutes after news of Monarez’s ouster broke.

Numerous Democrats have sharply criticized the CDC moves. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, where the agency is based, said “putting a quack like Bobby Kennedy in charge of public health was a grave error” and that the Trump administration’s “extremism and incompetence are putting lives at risk.”

The hearing will be senators’ first opportunity to question Kennedy face-to-face since May, when he appeared separately before the Senate HELP and Appropriations committees to discuss his department’s fiscal 2026 budget request.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who chairs the HELP Committee and is also a member of the Finance panel, said Wednesday night that “these high profile departures will require oversight” by his committee.

Kennedy defended the CDC shakeup during a Fox News interview Thursday. Though he declined to talk about “personnel issues,” he added that the “agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it … and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.”