Congresswoman McCollum Condemns Trump Administration’s Unconstitutional Action to Take Back $810 Million That Congress Invested in Health Care and Housing

SAINT PAUL, Minn. — On Friday night, OMB Director Vought filed an illegal pocket rescission of Fiscal Year 2026 funds. This action follows the Trump administration’s illegal impoundment of nearly $5 billion in taxpayer dollars from Fiscal Year 2025. Congresswoman Betty McCollum, Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, released the following statement: 

“The Trump administration is again unlawfully taking funding away from Americans that was passed by a bipartisan vote in Congress and signed into law by President Trump. Their illegal budgetary manipulations are targeting our communities that are already struggling with increased costs because of Trump’s policies. Just last year, the Republican Big Beautiful Bill Act took away health care and food assistance for millions of Americans to pay in part for massive, permanent tax giveaways for their millionaire and billionaire donors. Trump’s reckless tariffs and unauthorized war with Iran are raising the cost of health care, housing, gas, groceries and more. The Trump administration is now illegally reversing a bipartisan vote to invest funding into communities across our country for better patients’ health care outcomes, provide housing counseling to Minnesotans, and support resettlement support for refugee families.

“The power to spend taxpayer funding comes from the Constitution’s Article 1, empowering Congress, not the President. In a cruel trick, the Trump administration waited until Speaker Johnson sent the U.S. House of Representatives home in order to attempt an end run around Congress. It is clear that Trump cannot be trusted to honor the Constitution and follow the law. Speaker Johnson must immediately bring back Congress to stop the administration’s meddling with American taxpayer funding.”