White House calls for budget-bill cuts

WASHINGTON — The White House is eyeing a plan to slash spending from the $1.3 trillion budget bill signed reluctantly by President Donald Trump late last month.

A spokesman for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., confirmed Monday that McCarthy’s office is working with the Trump administration on the approach, which would rely on a 1974 law that allows presidents to try to cancel spending authority already approved by Congress.

The spokesman, Matt Sparks, said planning was in the early stages and there were no details.

It’s expected that the White House would send a request for the so-called rescission to Capitol Hill once Congress returns from its spring recess next week. However, Congress would need to approve the request, making it a long shot given likely Democratic opposition.

The White House move would follow widespread conservative criticism of the budget bill, which increased spending by tens of billions of dollars for the military and domestic agencies, while failing to include much money for Trump’s border wall.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., an outspoken critic of the ballooning domestic spending in the omnibus, praised McCarthy for working with the White House on a plan to pare it back. Meadows said he was “very supportive and extremely pleased with the leadership’s willingness to engage on the issue.”

Trump threatened to veto the $1.3 trillion spending bill before ultimately signing it, but in the course of doing so he demanded a line-item veto, which has been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

“Rescission authority” is a related mechanism that allows presidents to submit to Congress a request to cancel spending it has already approved. Under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, Congress has 45 work days to approve the rescission request, according to the Congressional Recess Service. If Congress does not act, the money is made available.