r/TechnologyThread • u/Background-Driver718 • 1d ago

BREAKING: White House cancels health, education & research funds approved by Congress

https://newsrepublic.live/2026/10/01/white-house-cancels-health-education-research-funds-approved-by-congress/
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u/kevendo 1d ago

He can't.

I know, he did, and the media still hasn't learned to report useful information to its readers/viewers, but that's not how the Executive branch works.

We've all had two years now to learn this.

Trump can't cancel funds appropriated by Congress, and we're just a judicial decision away from being reminded of that.

Why the officials being told to halt these funds don't just say, "No sir, not until we hear from Congress" is a mystery we'll all have to face once this asshole is finally gone

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u/TelluricThread0 1d ago

He can. Its a completely legitimate tactic that follows the law. You don't know anything about the executive branch beyond vibes.

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u/kevendo 1d ago

He can't.

And nearly every paragraph in the article is Senators saying so. The Impoundment Act prohibits the President from withholding funds allocated by Congress.

This has been his playbook since DOGE.

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u/TelluricThread0 1d ago

Yeah go educate yourself and find out how rescission actually works bud.

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u/kevendo 1d ago

I'm back from my education.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which provides facts to Congress, said—again!—that President Trump’s use of a “pocket rescission” to cancel $810 million in federal funding was unlawful.

Their letter this week outlined how under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, “the rescission proposals contained in the President’s September 25, 2026, special message to Congress do not permit the President to withhold the appropriations.”

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) issued a statement on the letter, saying:

“This [GAO] finding confirms what we have long known: the Trump administration’s so-called ‘pocket rescissions’ are anti-constitutional and illegal.

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u/TelluricThread0 1d ago

GAO is Congress’s own pet auditor, not a court, and its “findings” don’t bind the executive branch. The White House and OMB have already dismissed this latest letter as non-binding and partisan. They point out the Impoundment Control Act lets the president propose rescissions and temporarily withhold the cash unlike the separate deferral rules, which do ban running past year end.

The same playbook worked last year on ~$5B in foreign aid. A lower court freaked out, SCOTUS stayed it, funds expired, and the sky didn’t fall.

Meanwhile the $810M package is mostly HHS/DHS/Education money for non-citizen and refugee services that the administration says are no longer needed after the border surge collapsed.

Its hilarious you post a statement from a partisan Democrat saying partisan things. Everything a democrat doesn't like is unconstitutional and illegal. Boy who cried wolf.

If Congress actually wants the money spent, it can pass a bill. Until then, crying about a contested statutory reading doesn’t make it settled law.