The U.S. Congress has officially received a $9.4 billion rescission request from the White House — one that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said will eliminate billions of dollars in “wasteful foreign aid spending” at the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development.
“Under President Trump, every federal taxpayer dollar is actually being used to serve the American people, not to fund a bloated bureaucracy or purely partisan pet projects,” Johnson wrote on X. “We thank Elon Musk and his DOGE team for identifying a wide range of wasteful, duplicative, and outdated programs, and House Republicans are eager to eliminate them.”
The package — which would claw back funds previously approved by Congress for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 — includes aid money already cut by DOGE, the budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency. Until now, the Trump administration has tried to sidestep lawmakers by eliminating those funds itself — but if Congress passes the package, those cuts would be codified into law.
About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
