The Republican plan to scale back federal spending has itself been scaled back.
Politico reports that a package of spending cuts totaling $11 billion will be released early next week. The proposed rescissions are significantly smaller than the $30 billion to $60 billion originally floated, and they’ll come from unspent money approved in past years, not from the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill passed early this year.
The idea of a rescissions package was met with resistance from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, but the new focus on unspent funds might be more appealing to GOP lawmakers who had reservations about going back on their negotiated spending deal.
Politico’s Playbook Power Briefing team calls the impending release of the budget-slashing measure a win for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who worked on the package with the White House Office of Management and Budget. But the rescissions package still appears unlikely to pass the Senate.
