Trump Admin Moves to Cut $4.9 Billion in Foreign Aid Funding

The request is the second major proposal for rescissions in 2025 and employs a little-used technique of a ‘pocket rescission.’
Trump Admin Moves to Cut $4.9 Billion in Foreign Aid Funding
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on June 10, 2025. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
|Updated:
0:00

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump on Aug. 28 proposed the cancellation of $4.9 billion in appropriated funds for foreign aid spending, using a maneuver that could effectively bypass the congressional approval process normally required to rescind the funds.

The funds were allocated to the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development—which is in the process of being closed by the Trump administration—during the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations process.