Hopefully everyone had safe trips back from #AGS18. While we were away, the Trump Administration unveiled a "recissions package," or a request for Congress to rescind certain spending items. Many of the funds the Administration wants to cut are "unobligated," meaning they are leftover from programs that have not been reauthorized or no longer exist. If Congress passes the rescissions package (which remains an uncertainty), it could make it more difficult to pass other kinds of spending legislation throughout the year.
From HHS, the White House is proposing to rescind:
- $5.15 billion from the Children’s Insurance Fund (authority to obligate these funds to States expired on Sep. 30, 2017);
- $1.865 billion from the Child Enrollment Contingency Fund. According to the White House, CMS “does not expect that any State would require a Contingency Fund payment in FY 2018; therefore, this funding is not needed.”
- $800 million from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). According to the White House, these funds are “in excess of amounts needed to carry out the Innovation Center’s planned activities in FYs 2018 and 2019.”
- $220 million from the HHS Departmental Management Nonrecurring Expenses Fund (rescinds unobligated balances);
Our expert consultants at Arnold & Porter in D.C. noted that there are no proposed cuts to the GWEP or other HRSA workforce accounts, based on their expert review of the recission request.
Overall, the recissions request totals $15.4 billion, and it would impact 38 different accounts for programs at the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services (HHS), Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, and Treasury, as well as the Corporation for National and Community Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Railroad Retirement Board, Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.