LWVUS Joins Letter to Congress Opposing Rescissions Legislation

The League of Women Voters of the United States joined a sign-on letter urging Congress to oppose the rescissions legislation, which would cancel some previously congressionally-appropriated funding.

United States House of Representatives 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20515 

June 9, 2025 

Dear Members of Congress, 

As you prepare to take up the Trump Administration’s recently-proposed rescissions legislation, the undersigned 100+ organizations urge you to vote NO. 

Though each of our organizations may take differing institutional positions on various items included in the proposed rescissions package and on the federal budget as a whole, we are united in strongly opposing this legislation. 

Most centrally, we are deeply concerned about the devastating impacts to real people that have already resulted, and will continue to result, from the Trump Administration’s gutting of federal spending. Some of our own constituencies include people directly harmed by these spending cuts - from people around the world for whom access to foreign aid means life or death, to those at home whose access to critical public services could be shuttered, as popular and bipartisan programs like local PBS programming and PEPFAR are on the potential chopping block. 

We note that this rescissions proposal does not ask Congress, as required by the Impoundment Control Act, to approve the entirety of the federal spending that has been illegally frozen by the Trump Administration. Thus, even if this package passes, it will not address the illegal impoundment of federal funds, possibly totaling more than $420 billion, according to estimates from House and Senate Appropriators. The Administration is merely trying to establish a veil of legitimacy while it continues unconstitutional actions that it began more than 100 days ago. 

Further, neither Congress, the Government Accountability Office, nor the public has sufficient information to properly conduct oversight of the Administration’s funding decisions, including fully assessing these proposed rescissions. First, despite being mandated by Congress to post the information publicly, the Trump administration has illegally shuttered the Public Apportionments Database, created by Congress in the aftermath of the first Trump Administration’s unlawful impoundment actions. Without access to this database, it is impossible to understand the full scope of how the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has apportioned funds appropriated by Congress, including any requirements or conditions imposed on an agency’s spending. Additionally, as Comptroller General Dodaro recently testified to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Administration is refusing to cooperate on 39 separate investigations into the Administration’s funding freezes. Voting to approve this rescission package would sanction the Administration’s actions even as it is refusing to follow the ICA’s statutory requirements.

Finally, by going down this path, Congress risks irreparable damage to the regular bipartisan appropriations process. Despite the political back and forth, Congress eventually reaches a bipartisan agreement on government funding every year, one way or another. The basis for that bipartisan agreement is that both parties must agree to compromises to achieve any of their goals. If a party with a political trifecta can simply rescind funding for the parts of appropriations bills they compromised on, they undermine congressional checks and balances and the basis for future bipartisan dealmaking on an already politically fraught process. 

Congress should not go along with any part of the administration’s slash-and-burn approach, and thus must reject these proposed rescissions. 

Sincerely, 

See Attached for List of Signatories