GOP senators expect White House to send spending cuts — eventually
A group of Senate Republicans left a meeting with top White House officials Thursday saying they are increasingly confident that President Donald Trump will send a package of spending cuts to Capitol Hill for lawmakers’ approval.
The senators, however, said they did not yet have a timeline for when the Trump administration might request what are known as rescissions — a process allowing Congress to claw back previously approved funding by a simple-majority vote in both chambers.
“Nothing happens until it's done, but I believe we’ll have a rescissions package,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), adding that he has spoken frequently about it with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who was in the meeting with GOP senators on Thursday.
Vought declined to comment upon leaving the meeting. Top Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett also attended.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso added that there was a “big appetite” among Republicans to rescind funding “abuses” identified by the White House, an apparent reference to efforts by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy.
“That has to originate from the White House, and we’ve been meeting with White House officials about doing just that,” Barrasso said as he left the meeting.
The closed-door meeting comes after Senate Republicans pitched Musk personally on rescissions during a lunch earlier this month. Some senators have argued that having Congress vote on DOGE’s cuts could give them more staying power given the legal challenges the administration is facing over Musk’s work.
Still, some Republican senators believe the administration is in no hurry to send over a package of cuts, preferring to fight the DOGE battles in the courts first.