WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Friday that President Donald Trump’s move to cancel nearly $1 billion in spending approved by Congress is illegal, sharply criticizing a White House budget office whose director she voted to confirm.
The White House announced the cuts Friday, using a rare and contested power to axe funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget described them as focused on “the most harmful government spending.”
The Maine Republican is one of the few in her party defending Congress’ power of the purse against Trump at the end of her pivotal campaign against Democrat Troy Jackson. His party says Collins should have seen this coming when she backed Russell Vought, the budget chief who told senators he considered the spending law unconstitutional.
Most of the cuts target Health and Human Services programs that serve refugees and unaccompanied minors accused of being in the country illegally. The administration says the funds are no longer necessary because illegal border crossings have diminished considerably.
Also targeted were a Department of Education program for migrant students, a Department of Justice office focused on reducing racial tensions, a business development initiative for minority entrepreneurs and housing counseling services from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the action came without warning or consultation. She called it the latest attempt by OMB to “undermine Congress’s Constitutional power of the purse.”
“Not only is the delay itself an impoundment that was not reported to Congress, but also it is a usurpation of Congress’s appropriations powers,” Collins said in a statement. “OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding.”
Under federal law, Congress has 45 days to review a president’s proposed spending cuts before they take effect. But Trump made that all but impossible by announcing them with just five days left in the federal fiscal year and the House out of session through the November election. The Government Accountability Office, which is an arm of Congress, says the maneuver known as a “pocket rescission” is illegal.
Vought laid out his view of the law behind that process at his January 2025 confirmation hearing, where Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, repeatedly pressed him on whether he would follow it, saying he agreed with Trump that the law constraining the president’s authority is unconstitutional.
Collins voted to confirm him two weeks later, saying presidents are “entitled to broad discretion” in picking Cabinet members. U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, voted no, saying Vought “explicitly rejects” Congress’ power over appropriations. That March, Collins and Murray chided Vought in a letter after Trump cut nearly $3 billion in emergency spending.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee posted Friday night that Collins “refuses to use her power as Appropriations Chair to stand up to Trump.” Two out of three polls released Thursday showed her trailing Jackson.
A year ago, Trump issued a pocket rescission for the first time in nearly 50 years by blocking $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block the cuts, saying that Trump’s authority over foreign affairs weighed heavily in its decision. But the court cautioned that its order “should not be read as a final determination on the merits.” Trump is now targeting domestic spending.
Collins said she would work with colleagues to address “these illegal actions.” Murray, the lead Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, described the White House action as “theft from the American people, plain and simple.”
Story by Kevin Freking and Jonathan J. Cooper. BDN political editor Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.