Biden sent a letter to Congress on Jan. 31 to cancel the spending cuts proposed by Trump before he left office.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Sunday (Jan. 31) that he is canceling a package of spending cuts proposed by former President Donald Trump before he left office.
Biden sent a letter to Congress on Sunday canceling a package of 73 spending cuts, totaling $27.4 billion, that Trump had previously delivered to Congress.
Trump signed the $2.3 trillion Epidemic relief and spending bill last December, but he said at the Time that he was not satisfied with some of the spending provisions of the bill and said he would ask Congress to “undo” some of the “wasteful” provisions.
On Jan. 14, Trump unveiled his spending cuts and sent a letter to Congress asking that his proposed wasteful provisions be withdrawn. Several congressional Democrats, including House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rosa DeLauro (D-Calif.), rejected Trump’s cuts before Biden’s inauguration.
Trump’s proposed 73 budget cuts cover nearly all Cabinet-level agencies and mostly align with the spending cuts to domestic programs he proposed in his 2021 federal budget.
The proposed spending cuts were made by the president by invoking the Intercept Control Act, which was passed in 1974. Under the Act, for a given program, if the president intends to spend less money than Congress has provided, he can seek congressional approval for what he considers wasteful funding by sending a special message to Congress stating the amount he proposes to eliminate, the reasons for it, and the economic impact of the elimination.
Congress’ $2.3 trillion epidemic relief and spending bill garnered widespread attention last December as members of Congress rushed to pass the bill to avoid a federal government shutdown. After months of stalled negotiations, the House and Senate finally reached consensus on the spending bill.
The more than 5,500-page bill passed both houses of Congress, but some lawmakers from both parties were disappointed, saying they did not have enough time to read the massive bill.
The $2.3 trillion bill includes $900 billion in CCP virus (coronavirus) relief and a $1.4 trillion budget for fiscal year 2021.
Trump and others have denounced some of the bill’s “wasteful programs” and unnecessary spending, such as sending huge amounts of aid overseas and funding programs for domestic entities that are not in business.
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