Some Republicans opposing Trump's fund cuts

The Hill - Republican lawmakers are pushing back on President Trump’s decision to cancel nearly $1 billion in federal funding, setting up a new clash between the White House and members of Trump’s own party at a particularly precarious moment for the GOP.

The administration announced Friday that it would use a budget maneuver known as a “pocket rescission” to claw back funding for a range of federal programs, especially grants through the Department of Health and Human Services that support minority students, refugee resettlement and children without legal status. The cancellation comes less than 45 days before the end of the fiscal year, meaning the canceled funds will be paused through the year’s end regardless of what Congress does in response.

The move threatens to further stiffen the government funding process, which is already mired in partisanship over how much the government should spend on defense versus domestic programs. Whether Congress can manage a regular funding procedure this winter is already in question and will be determined, in large part, by the outcome of the midterm elections.

The White House has defended the new cuts as necessary to eliminate government waste and fraud, arguing that some money originally intended for refugee resettlement is no longer needed because fewer people are crossing the southern border illegally.

But Republica.ns on the congressional Appropriations committees, who are supposed to be in charge of the government’s purse, have never liked rescissions. Several of them voiced concern that the White House is encroaching on Congress’s constitutional authority over federal spending