{"id":9228,"date":"2025-05-14T21:01:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T21:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/white-house-considers-plan-b-as-doge-cuts-hit-a-wall-on-the-hill\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T21:01:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T21:01:35","slug":"white-house-considers-plan-b-as-doge-cuts-hit-a-wall-on-the-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/white-house-considers-plan-b-as-doge-cuts-hit-a-wall-on-the-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"White House considers plan B as DOGE cuts hit a wall on Blue Light News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Running out of options to get it DOGE cuts approved by Congress, the White House is now looking at a two-year runway to get the cuts passed and opening the door to launching a court fight over the president\u2019s power to shut down spending on his own.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trumpinitially wanted Congress to approve a formal rescissions package<\/a> that would claw back about $9 billion in previously approved federal spending, a vote that would give legislative teeth to some of the cuts DOGE has already made. The package would include major cuts to USAID and public broadcasting like NPR and PBS.<\/p>\n

That effort is hitting a dead end on Capitol Hill, with Republicans warning the White House that it faces tough odds in their so-called megabill, even though it requires just a simple majority of 50 Republican votes in the Senate, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie.<\/p>\n

The White House is recognizing that reality and is giving itself a much longer timeline to codify DOGE cuts while leaving open the option of challenging the Impoundment Control Act, the 1974 law that limits a president\u2019s ability to withhold funds appropriated by Congress. Trump\u2019s allies have argued the president already has authority to withhold spending but it would likely be up to the courts to decide, given that the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus right now is the reconciliation bill,\u201d said a White House official granted anonymity to speak freely. \u201cI think there’s an appetite within Capitol Hill, within the two years that we have to codify the work of DOGE. The procedures of Capitol Hill may not allow for it to happen now but it doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t happen later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several GOP senators expressed deep reservations about codifying DOGE cuts as the White House wants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they don\u2019t want to lose the vote, so I think they may be concerned about the sensibility,\u201d Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who supports the rescissions effort, told West Wing Playbook.<\/p>\n

Other Republicans were more blunt. \u201cI don\u2019t know that we should be taking our limited legislative time to look at that,\u201d said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). \u201cI don\u2019t think legislation is called for.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, during Trump\u2019s first term, the Senate narrowly rejected a $15 billion rescissions package. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was one of two Republicans to vote no. \u201cI don\u2019t like tipping the power of the purse to the executive branch,\u201d she said then<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, Collins \u2013 who has more power as chair of the Appropriations Committee \u2013 is warning she won\u2019t support any effort that cuts global women\u2019s health programs or PEPFAR. \u201cI don\u2019t see those passing,\u201d she told the Washington Post.<\/p>\n

The congressional cold shoulder has major implications for the future of DOGE.<\/p>\n

Although the group has claimed more than $160 billion in savings \u2014 their accounting has been disputed \u2014 most of those cuts are unilateral, and potentially reversible executive actions. With both Congress and the courts unwilling to provide legal backing, the administration is running out of ways to ensure its reductions hold, raising the risk that DOGE\u2019s sweeping disruption may leave little lasting impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cuts won\u2019t be real or lasting unless Congress votes on it,\u201d Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said. Paul and other fiscal hawks have urged the White House to go bigger, not smaller.<\/p>\n

The rescission package\u2019s \u201c$9 billion is a pittance,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a rounding error and it should only be the beginning. If they\u2019re not going to send us the $9 billion, it sends a really bad signal to anybody that is fiscally responsible that there\u2019s going to be no change from doing things the way that they\u2019ve always been done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Complicating matters further, Republicans earlier this year were hoping to use DOGE savings to partially offset the cost of extending the Trump tax cuts. But the rules governing the process the GOP is using to enact the megabill doesn\u2019t allow for cuts to discretionary spending \u2013 where most of the DOGE cuts were made.<\/p>\n

With few viable paths in Congress, the White House may now pivot to the courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they probably want to challenge the Impoundment Act is my sense,\u201d Hawley said. A legal fight over that statute, if successful, could open the door for a broader showdown over Trump\u2019s executive power.<\/p>\n

The White House has already expressed an openness to unilaterally freezing money approved by Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we have never taken impoundment off the table, because the president and myself believe that 200 years of the president and executive branch had that ability,\u201d an OMB official said on a call<\/a> with reporters last week.<\/p>\n

Asked today if Trump would use impoundment authority to withhold funding, the White House official said, \u201cAll options are on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to achieve what we\u2019ve been able to achieve without going down that path but that\u2019s not to say we wouldn\u2019t consider using it if the situation called for it,\u201d the person said.<\/p>\n

Like this content? Consider signing up for Blue Light News\u2019s <\/i>West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government newsletter<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running out of options to get it DOGE cuts approved by Congress, the White House is now looking at a two-year runway to get the cuts passed and opening the door to launching a court fight over the president\u2019s power to shut down spending on his own. President Donald Trumpinitially wanted Congress to approve a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}