- President Joe Biden told Congress that he will rescind a last-minute move by President Donald Trump to cut nearly $ 30 billion in funding for various federal agencies.
- “I am withdrawing 73 termination proposals previously transmitted to Congress,” wrote the president in a letter to Congress.
- Trump had written a letter on January 14, a week before leaving office, notifying Congress that he planned to block $ 27.4 billion in federal funding.
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President Joe Biden told Congress that he will rescind a last-minute move by President Donald Trump to cut nearly $ 30 billion in funding for various federal agencies.
President Biden announced the reversal in a letter on Sunday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate President.
“I am withdrawing 73 termination proposals previously transmitted to Congress,” wrote the president.
President Trump had written a letter on January 14, just before leaving office, notifying Congress that he planned to block $ 27.4 billion in federal funding.
It came in response to what Trump called “wasteful spending” contained in the $ 900 billion coronavirus relief bill – legislation that included a $ 600 salary for each adult citizen, as well as a number of other measures.
Trump said he would support the project on the condition that it would add “many terminations” to it.
“I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes it clear to Congress that useless items need to be removed,” Trump said in a December 28 statement.
“I will send back to Congress a red version, item by item, accompanied by the formal request for termination to Congress insisting that these funds be removed from the bill.”
Leading Democrats immediately rejected Trump’s proposed terminations, which affected a total of 28 government agencies, including the Treasury and the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Education, in part due to the fact that Trump was less than a month in office.
Biden’s decision to rescind Trump’s proposed budget cuts is part of his broader effort during his first few weeks in office to undo many aspects of the former president’s legacy.
Within hours of taking office, Biden took steps to halt construction of the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and lifted Trump’s travel ban for arrivals from Muslim-majority countries.
The president also signaled a break with the Trump era by re-joining the Paris climate agreement, halting the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization and forcing the use of masks in federal buildings.