As conservative frustration bubbles up on spending in the GOP plan and the lack of congressional follow-through on DOGE cuts, the blame lies mostly with the White House, not Congress; it’s the White House that has been slow to send lawmakers the rescissions package that fiscal hawks want to see, even after indicating weeks ago that the request to claw back some funding was coming.
That’s about to change. Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, said in a television interview Wednesday that the White House will be sending a small package of requested spending cuts to Congress next week. The $9.4 billion in rescissions — proposed cuts to funding Congress has already allocated —will reportedly focus on foreign aid programs as well as funding for NPR and PBS. The total savings represent just a small fraction of the more than $1.6 trillion in annual federal discretionary spending — and a tiny slice of the $2 trillion in DOGE cuts that Musk had initially floated as a target … or the $1 trillion he later suggested … or the estimated $175 billion DOGE claims to have saved.
Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X that the House would move quickly once it gets the White House rescissions package. “The House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand,” he wrote, adding that the House will also use the appropriations process to implement Trump’s 2026 budget.
Vought told the Fox Business Network that if Congress approves this round of cuts, the Trump administration will request more.
Pressure from the Right: Conservatives have long called for the DOGE cuts to be codified and have begun to express frustration with the lack of action from the Republican-led Congress.
“We have a Republican Congress, and to this day — we’re in the end of May, past Memorial Day — and not one cent in DOGE cuts have been implemented by the Congress,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a speech on Tuesday. “I don’t think there’s any question that DOGE fought the Swamp, and so far the Swamp has won. And that’s just unfortunate, but I don’t think you can look at this any other way.”
DeSantis called for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and term limits for members of Congress.
The bottom line: Musk and some GOP lawmakers have been frustrated by the level of spending in the Republican budget bill and the lack of action so far to formalize DOGE cuts. A White House rescissions package is about to land in Congress, and lawmakers will then have 45 days to take it up. It’s still not completely clear whether Republicans will be able to pass the proposed cuts. Lawmakers can also amend the White House package and excise changes they don’t want.