- President Joe Biden has told Congress that he will withdraw a last-minute move by President Donald Trump to cut nearly $ 30 billion in funding for multiple federal agencies.
- “I am withdrawing 73 proposed repeals previously submitted to Congress,” the president wrote in a letter to Congress.
- Trump had written a letter on January 14, a week before he left office, informing Congress that he intended to block $ 27.4 billion in federal funding.
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President Joe Biden has told Congress that he will withdraw a last-minute move by President Donald Trump to cut nearly $ 30 billion in funding for multiple federal agencies.
President Biden announced the reversal Sunday in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris, the president of the Senate.
“I am withdrawing 73 proposed repeals previously submitted to Congress,” the president wrote.
President Trump had written a letter on January 14, shortly before leaving office, informing Congress that he intended to block $ 27.4 billion in federal funding.
It came in response to what Trump called “wasteful spending” contained in the $ 900 billion coronavirus bill – the legislation that included a $ 600 salary for each adult citizen, as well as a host of other measures.
Trump had said he would support the bill on the condition that he add “a lot of dissolution.”
“I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message making it clear to Congress that wasteful items must be removed,” Trump said in a Dec. 28 statement.
“I will send back to Congress a redefined version, item by item, accompanied by the formal request for revocation to Congress, urging that those funds be removed from the bill.”
Top Democrats had immediately rejected Trump’s proposed dissolution, which affected a total of 28 government agencies, including the Treasury and the Agriculture, Commerce, and Education Departments, in part because Trump was still in office for less than a month.
Biden’s move to withdraw Trump’s proposed cuts is part of his broader effort during his early weeks in office to undo many aspects of the former president’s legacy.
Within hours of taking office, Biden stopped building the wall on the US-Mexico border and lifted Trump’s travel ban on arrivals from Muslim-majority countries.
The president has also ushered in a break with the Trump era by rejoining the Paris climate accord, ending the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization, and mandating the wearing of masks in federal buildings.