Biden Withdraws $27.4 Billion in Spending Cuts Proposed by Trump

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden on Sunday withdrew all the spending cuts proposed by former President Donald Trump during his final days in office.

Biden said in a letter to Congress that he was reversing all 73 spending cuts that Trump had requested, which touched virtually every cabinet-level agency as well as federal programs such as the National Endowments of the Arts and Humanities.

Under the 1974 Budget and Impoundment Control Act, the president can request that Congress rescind budget authority that it had previously approved.

The cuts, known as rescissions, totaled $27.4 billion, according to a Jan. 14 letter to Congress from the Trump White House. The proposed cuts had come after Trump grew frustrated with some of the spending included in a December spending bill.

“I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed,” Trump said in a statement as he signed the bill into law in late December. “I will send back to Congress a redlined version, item by item, accompanied by the formal rescission request to Congress insisting that those funds be removed from the bill.”

The proposed cuts would have also hit the legislative branch of the federal government, the District of Columbia, the Peace Corps and the U.S. Agency for International Development, among other initiatives.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.