Overview

• The budget chief is preparing a “pocket rescission” that would cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid unless Congress votes to block it by September 30, according to reports citing associates.
• GAO legal counsel rejects the administration’s theory, stating that the president does not have the unilateral authority to change laws.
• Coverage details friction with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, including a mass email demanding five weekly accomplishments from federal employees that Vought viewed as legally risky, though his spokeswoman denies a quoted remark about letting DOGE “break things.”
• Since Musk’s split with the president, Vought has pressed to cancel about $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting, helped enact domestic spending cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, and led a deregulatory drive claiming 245 rollbacks this year.
• Agency actions described in the reporting include halting most Consumer Financial Protection Bureau operations with an attempt to dismiss 90% of staff and objecting when DOGE moved to shut the Education Department’s data office.