Making the DOGE cuts stick

The Department of Government Efficiency estimates it has helped eliminate $115 billion in wasteful spending, but unless Congress takes action, the savings won’t last. As lawmakers get to work on appropriations for next year, the GOP hopes to cement those changes into law.

“They’re working, trying to codify the DOGE savings,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said last week after leaving a meeting with Republicans and Vice President J.D. Vance. Republicans could include the cuts in the 12 appropriations bills that fund the government. They could also make them happen sooner through a legislative vehicle called a recission package.

A rescission allows for the expedited consideration of spending cuts recommended to Congress by the president. Similar to the budget reconciliation process, a rescission can pass both chambers of Congress with a simple majority vote. The last successful rescission package passed under the Clinton administration, according to the Government Accountability Office.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said GOP leaders are expecting another rescission effort soon.

“Obviously DOGE has identified a whole lot of waste, fraud, and abuse in government. Ultimately, that will be put in a rescission package,” Scalise said. “I think the American people want those savings locked in.”

Democrats have argued DOGE’s cuts go against the will of past sessions of Congress that appropriated the funds in the first place. That argument is the basis of many of the court challenges to cuts Trump made at DOGE’s prompting. Democrats pushed to include restrictions on DOGE in this year’s spending bill, but the short-term continuing resolution passed the House without any additions.

“Without any assurances that [the president] will spend the money we appropriate, [it] kind of negates the reason we pass these,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

The rescission power stems from the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Unlike most pieces of legislation, rescissions circumvent the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster in the Senate, making its passage possible without a single Democrat vote—but only for a limited time. Congress has 45 days to act once it receives a rescission request from the president.

Trump has tried a rescission package before. In 2018, he proposed $15.4 billion in cuts. The package passed the House by a vote of 210-206, but the Senate never took it up.

There are limitations to the rescission power. Rescissions can only be used to undo spending that Congress has approved but hasn’t yet spent. They can’t target mandatory spending to programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Additionally, Congress may only make cuts that the president requests.

For Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, an outspoken fiscal hawk, rescissions are only one of the many avenues Republicans have to get the job done.

“Depends on what it is,” Roy said when asked about whether he would rather use a rescission package or some other means to codify DOGE’s work. “If it’s something that can be done through the mandatory process in reconciliation, we can look at that. If it’s something that’s a rescission that can be done legislatively, we should look at that. We can impound some funds, but they have to fight that out in court, right? We will use every tool at our disposal.”