Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA-14) introduced the Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act (H.R. 3) as an original cosponsor. The legislation is based on the Trump administration’s proposal to cut $15.35 billion of unused, unnecessary spending. The proposal utilizes a special legislative tool called “rescissions,” which the Senate is able to pass on a simple majority vote, that takes back or ‘rescinds’ funds Congress previously appropriated.
“President Trump’s rescissions package takes a bush hog to the spending underbrush,” said Rep.
Graves. “Every dollar in this package either can’t or won’t get spent for the purpose it was budgeted. It’s good government and a big win for the American people. I look forward to working with the Trump administration to move this package across the finish line.”
Highlights of the spending cut package include: *(As prepared by OMB)
· Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (Energy): A $4.3 billion rescission of funds that have been untouched since 2011. Since ATVM’s inception in 2007, only five loans have been closed under this authority.
· Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program (Energy): A rescission of $523 million in unobligated balances dating back to the stimulus that were provided for energy loan guarantees. The authority to make new guarantees lapsed in 2011.
· Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (HHS): A rescission of $800 million that is in excess of the funds needed by the Innovation Center in FYs 2018 and 2019. In 2020, CMMI will receive a new mandatory appropriation of $10 billion.
· Ebola Response (USAID): A rescission of $252 million in excess funds remaining from the initial Ebola outbreak in 2015; the World Health Organization declared the end of the Ebola epidemic in 2016.
· Railroad Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits (RRB): A rescission of $133 million in unobligated balances for a program that expired in 2012.
· Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (Department of Agriculture): A rescission of $148 million, including funds for responding to disease outbreaks that are now resolved (e.g., the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in 2015).