What Are Budget Rescissions and Pocket Rescissions? (with Philip Wallach)

About this episode

This episode discusses budget rescissions and pocket rescissions, featuring guest Philip Wallach.

The topic of this episode is, what are budget rescissions and pocket rescissions? Rescissions have been in the news recently. This past July President Donald J. Trump sent the House and Senate a rescissions message . This memorandum requested that Congress rescind, or take back, spending authority it had previously granted. Congress passed the legislation, which cut $9 billion from foreign aid, the U.S. Institute for Peace, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A rescission of funds has not occurred since 1999, when former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, struck a deal with the Republican-held House and Senate. Now the Trump administration is attempting a maneuver called a “pocket rescission.” What’s a pocket rescission?  To answer that question I have as my guest my colleague, Dr. Philip Wallach. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a colleague and a friend. At AEI he studies America’s separation of powers, with a focus on regulatory policy issues and the relationship between Congress and the administrative state. His latest book is Why Congress (Oxford University Press). Click here for a full transcript of the episode.

People in this episode

Guest: Philip Wallach

Topics covered

• budget rescissions
• pocket rescissions
• Congress
• Trump administration
• spending authority
• separation of powers

Keywords

• budget rescissions
• pocket rescissions
• Congress
• Trump
• spending cuts
• foreign aid
• separation of powers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: American Enterprise Institute, U.S. Institute for Peace, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Books & works: Why Congress

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