The Senate should pass the rescissions package quickly

The House acted with remarkable alacrity in passing President Trump’s $9.4 billion rescissions package. If he keeps this up, they may have to change Mike Johnson’s title from “Speaker” to “House Magician.” The Senate should capitalize on this big win by moving quickly to pass the bill and send it to the president’s desk. It would make a bigger difference than the initial score suggests.

The urgency emerges in part from the soaring national debt, though even if the budget were perfectly balanced, this package still deserves support. Among other steps, the package cuts funding for the left-wing National Public Radio and for PBS. Even if these organizations were politically neutral, the federal government has no business funding or managing media outlets.

The rescissions package also slashes wasteful foreign aid Secretary of State Rubio and DOGE identified. It would be tough to find more politically popular spending cuts, or more crucial cuts to future spending reduction. How does a politician respond when asked, “How can you cut spending on my deal when the government is spending billions for foreigners?”

Yet the real driver for the rescissions package is the debt issue. The CBO projects the federal government will run a deficit of $1.7 trillion plus this year. Against such a massive figure, a rescissions package of under $10 billion may seem a rounding error, but our deep fiscal hole was dug over many years. No single bill is going to fill it. It will take time and a relentless pursuit of savings involving big reforms and small ones. This package is only a start, but every step counts.

Rescissions result because one Congress chose to spend on some programs, and then it or the next Congress decided it didn’t need to spend so much. In simple parlance, rescissions legislation says, “never mind.”

Rescission packages are not uncommon. They manifest sound governance and should really pass at least once a year, considering how much is spent and how complex and diverse federal activities are.

The urgency to pass the rescissions package results from the Senate’s consideration of President Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill (BBB). Thankfully, some senators like Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rick Scott (R-FL) are worried because the BBB doesn’t do enough to slow the rise in federal debt.

Paul, Scott, and their allies in the House, like Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) are right that more needs to be done. Moreover, Congress has few real opportunities each year to affect the trajectory of federal spending. The BBB is one, but the rescissions package is another. Passing the rescissions package would be a big step in reaffirming an ongoing determination to rein in federal spending.

Further, the rescissions package will have a bigger effect on federal debt than its initial score suggests. According to the CBO, “rescissions of budget authority appropriated from the general fund of the Treasury are permanent unless legislation states otherwise.”

That simple sentence packs a big punch. It means rescinded spending authority is typically cut out of future CBO spending baselines, which is a fancy way of saying that a spending cut today is more spending cut tomorrow.

Expressed as hard numbers, the $9.4 billion in current-year rescissions would generate north of $130 billion in budgetary savings over the next 10 years. Even by Washington standards, that’s not chump change.

Don’t oppose the rescissions package because it doesn’t do enough about the debt. Don’t oppose the BBB because it doesn’t do enough. Pass them both swiftly, and then be ready to resume the fight. Rome, in this case, a responsible federal budget, won’t be built in a day or with one bill.

JD Foster is the former chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget and former chief economist and senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He now resides in relative freedom in the hills of Idaho.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.