Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins wants the Trump administration to work its requests for future spending cuts into the Senate’s bipartisan spending bills, rather than risk derailing bipartisan work with Democrats.
Collins told Semafor that she’s told Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought directly “that if there is unspent funding for programs that he believes should be rescinded, that he should work through the appropriations process,” rather than the party-line rescissions process Republicans just used to claw back $9 billion (Collins opposed the cuts package).
A senior administration official said that Vought has rejected Collins’ preferred approach because he wants to lower overall spending numbers, not shift money around. A new rescissions package could seriously jeopardize delicate funding talks.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democratic appropriator, says Republicans need to say: “No, we’re not doing that.”