The House on Thursday voted to pass a White House proposal that cuts on $15 billion that was previously approved in the government funding.
The House approved the measure with no Democrats supporting it, while conservatives say it’s a step in the right direction.
“President Trump and this Administration are fully committed to protecting taxpayers, and Senate passage of this legislation is critical to reducing wasteful, unnecessary spending and making our Federal Government more efficient, effective, and accountable,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement late Thursday.
According to The Hill, Trump urged lawmakers earlier this week to vote in favor of the Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act. A team of GOP leaders together with White House officials started working on the cuts plan after Trump’s $1.3 trillion budget was introduced.
“The HISTORIC Rescissions Package we’ve proposed would cut $15,000,000,000 in Wasteful Spending! We are getting our government back on track,” Trump tweeted Tuesday.
The idea to cut on spending reportedly appeared during a conversation between Trump and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in April, weeks after Trump signed the omnibus into law.
“The President’s rescissions request is a straightforward approach to begin cleaning up a bloated federal budget and respecting hardworking taxpayer dollars,” McCarthy said in a statement Wednesday.
Although the measure was praised by fiscal hawks, Democrats, as well as moderates, said that it could jeopardize future budget negotiations and close some funds that may become needed for programs down the road. The measure is now headed for the Senate where if passed it will become the largest single presidential rescission request to pass since the current budgetary process was put in place back in 1974 and the first presidential rescission since President Bill Clinton’s spending cuts nearly two decades ago.
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