President Trump’s rescission package calls for billions of dollars in cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which funds NPR and PBS—and WSKG. Southern Tier Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY23) supports the funding cuts.
In a June 8 newsletter, Langworthy said that Congress will vote on the president’s rescission package this week.
He called it “a significant step towards restoring fiscal sanity and reining in Washington’s reckless spending.”
A rescission is the legal process to cancel funding already approved and appropriated by Congress.
A president can ask Congress to delay or cancel funding through the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The president sends a “special message” to Congress, which then has 45 days to act and hold a vote, according to the Government Accountability Office. It requires a simple majority to pass.
Langworthy said this package identifies $9.4 billion in “fraud, waste and abuse of hard earned tax dollars related to foreign aid and public broadcasting.”
It’s not clear what fraud claims the congressman is referring to, though his newsletter lists some USAID spending items such as sexual and reproductive health in Venezuela, Net Zero Cities in Mexico and electoral reforms in Kenya. It is also unclear whether Congress can decide to keep funding for some programs if it chooses to accept the rescission package.
“President Trump and Congressional Republicans made a promise to return common sense and accountability to our government, and this rescissions package is critical to achieving that goal,” said Langworthy.
WSKG reached out to Langworthy’s office and did not hear back in time for this report.
Langworthy represents New York’s 23rd congressional district, which encompasses Tioga and Chemung counties as well as parts of Steuben and Schuyler counties.
Since 1974, there have been 243 “special messages” to cancel funds sent to Congress from both Republican and Democratic presidents.
Neither George W. Bush nor Barack Obama sent any requests to Congress during their presidencies. Trump made one request to Congress containing 73 rescissions just days before he left office in 2021. Biden withdrew those 73 rescissions in one of his first acts in office in 2021.
This rescission package cuts $8.3 billion in foreign aid to programs that support global reproductive health, clean energy and election integrity and $1.1 billion in cuts to CPB, which supports news and educational programming.
WSKG receives approximately $1.3 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.