Trump proposes clawing back $15 billion in federal spending, hits children's insurance

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump salutes NRA, vows to protect 2nd Amendment President Donald Trump spoke at the NRA's annual convention in Dallas Friday, telling supporters the Second Amendment will "never be under siege" as long as he is president. (May 4)

WASHINGTON — President Trump proposed canceling $15 billion in federal spending Tuesday, relying on a rarely used budget maneuver to ease deficit concerns raised by conservative Republicans.

Nearly half of those cuts — $7 billion — would come from the Children's Health Insurance Program, a safety-net program for low-income families that has enjoyed bipartisan support. White House officials said the reductions would not have an impact on the program, which has an enrollment of roughly 9 million.

“President Trump clearly understands that Washington has a spending problem," said White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, who described some of the money targeted for cuts as "egregious" and "obviously unnecessary."

The Trump administration has been working for weeks with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on the “rescission” package, which would claw back billions Congress set aside but that federal agencies never spent. The reductions represent less than half of 1% of federal spending this year.

Describing the package as the single-largest rescission proposal in U.S. history, White House officials said that more than 30 programs would be cut if Congress approves the measure. The cuts also include a $4.3 billion reduction in a loan program at the Department of Energy to improve vehicle technology that officials said had not been used since 2011.

The proposal includes clawing back $107 million from a "technical assistance" fund in the Hurricane Sandy recovery package approved by Congress in 2013, $252 million in unspent money from the Ebola virus outbreak as well as $800 million in unspent funds for Medicare and Medicaid pilot programs in the Affordable Care Act.

House Republicans emerged from a meeting with Mulvaney Tuesday confident the measure would pass that chamber.

Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, described the proposal as "a wonderful, positive step."

But Walker acknowledged that the proposal faces less certainty in the Senate.

"We’ll look at it and see," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "If it’s frivolous stuff that we can get rid of and save the taxpayer money, we ought to do it."

Democrats lashed out at the proposal.

More: Melania Trump lays out first-lady agenda: 'Be Best' agenda to safeguard well-being of kids

Related: Trump's judges are flexing their muscles, from civil rights to campaign spending

“These Republican rescissions show the hypocrisy of a GOP Congress that insists on tight budgets for children and families while handing enormous, unpaid-for giveaways to corporations and the wealthiest," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement.

Rep. Frank Pallone said the administration was trying to renege on a deal to have parity between domestic and military spending increases by seeking cuts only on the domestic side of the budget.

“I mean, we’re going to build more bombs but now we’re going to cut health care for kids," said Pallone, D-N.J. "That says a lot about Republican values.”

The proposal comes weeks after members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus balked at a $1.3 trillion government funding bill Trump signed in March. The president also criticized the bill, which he said he decided to sign because of spending increases for the military.

As a matter of National Security I've signed the Omnibus Spending Bill. I say to Congress: I will NEVER sign another bill like this again. To prevent this omnibus situation from ever happening again, I'm calling on Congress to give me a line-item veto for all govt spending bills! https://t.co/kYwMk5AE5k — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2018

A 1974 law gives the president power to send a list rescissions to Congress, which can bypass procedural speed bumps as it considers the measure. President Bill Clinton was the last president to submit a rescission request, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said last month he was open to considering the request, but Republicans on the House and Senate appropriations committees have been wary of going back on a deal they negotiated with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.

White House officials stressed Monday that none of the money in the proposal comes from the recent spending deal, but they did not rule out that future rescission packages may draw from that legislation. The officials described the proposal this week as an initial round, but declined to offer details about subsequent requests.

Trump's proposed spending cuts package includes $86 million in savings by canceling unspent money dedicated to specific highway projects. Those “orphan” earmarks were first identified in a 2011 USA TODAY investigation that found $7.5 billion in stranded transportation spending, locked up in projects that came in under budget or were never built.