A decision by Donald Trump to let the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) dictate pulling funding from government agencies has put the White House in a corner that will require a bail-out from the Republican-controlled Congress.
However, as an MSNBC report notes, GOP lawmakers don't appear to want to put themselves on the line by actually approving the yanking of funds.
As Devin O’Connor, of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities wrote on Saturday, the Trump White House is reluctant to ask GOP lawmakers to step in to take responsibility for the cuts proposed by Elon Musk's DOGE -- and for good reason.
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As he wrote, the White House is in "a bind of its own creation" because it can't "legally" cancel funding, it can only delay it.
That's where Congress comes in.
According to O'Connor, "Under that law, the Senate can approve a rescission package with only a majority vote — no filibuster allowed. But even with that lowered hurdle, the Trump administration is struggling to find much among its unlawful freezing of funds that at least 50 Republican senators are willing to publicly support," adding, "Part of the White House’s problem is that any rescission proposal transmitted to Congress highlights that the administration has been illegally impounding funds — both those included in that package and, perhaps more crucially, those not included."
As the report notes, Republicans are leery of having unpopular cuts linked to their vote, and that a proposed rescission package has already "run into a buzzsaw of opposition from House and Senate Republicans.”
Asking why the GOP-majority Congress isn't leaping to take credit for the gutting of the government that they have publicly praised, O'Connor offered, "The answer is clear: More than 100 days since the White House began illegally impounding funds, it seems that no one wants to publicly own DOGE’s actions that continue to hurt people across the country."
You can read more here.