Trump moves to cut $5 billion in foreign aid, circumventing Congress

The Trump administration has decided to reduce $ 5 billion (3.7 billion pounds sterling) in foreign aid that has already been allocated by congress earlier this year.

The president uses a arched maneuver known as the pocket termination, or a request to recover the approved funds so late during the financial year if the Congress does not weigh, the money allocated.

This decision, which aims to reduce billions of programs, in particular the financing of peacekeeping operations abroad, has not been attempted for almost 50 years.

Budget tactics is likely to deal with legal challenges because it effectively bypassing legislative power to directly reduce expenses.

The decision was announced by the White House management and budget office in an article on social networks on Friday.

The funds have reduced, including some $ 3 billion allocated to the financing of the USAID and $ 900 million in state funds.

Some $ 800 million allocated to international peacekeeping operations and more than $ 300 million to encourage democratic values ​​in other countries were also part of the cuts.

“The Trump administration is committed to obtaining the US tax house to reduce public spending that is awakened, armed and useless,” the White House said in a statement.

Trump uses a pocket recurrence through the detention control law, which gives a president the power to request the cancellation of the funds approved by the Congress. The congress can then vote to reduce funds or keep them within 45 days, but asking for it so close to the end of the financial year on September 30, money could be spent.

Some experts have questioned the legality of pocket recessions, including the Government Accountability Office, which argues that the budget tool bypasses the power of the Congress handbag.

Senator Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine, said that the Constitution “clearly indicates that the congress has the responsibility of the power of the bag” and any effort to recover the funds “without the approval of the congress is a clear violation of the law”.

“Instead of this attempt to undermine the law, the appropriate way is to identify the means to reduce excessive spending through the annual bipartite credits,” Collins said in a statement. “The congress regularly approves cancellations in the context of this process.”

Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, New York, said that Trump’s use of the pocket recession could compromise the normal congress procedure and cause “a painful and entirely useless closure of the government.

Former President Jimmy Carter was the last president to use a pocket recession in 1977.

Since his return to duties, Trump has reduced foreign aid, largely closing the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the main foreign aid agency because it has found its expenses “useless”.