WASHINGTON — Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, accused Senate Republicans on Wednesday of capitulating to President Donald Trump after a Democratic bill to stop what the White House calls a “pocket rescission” was blocked on the Senate floor. In a post on X, the Washington Democrat wrote that Republicans “just BLOCKED” the measure and that they are “once again rolling over for Trump.”
The Full Post
Murray published the post at 6:04 p.m. on Sept. 30, 2026. It read in its entirety:
“BREAKING: Senate Republicans just BLOCKED Democrats’ bill to stop Trump’s scheme to steal taxpayer dollars.
Republicans are once again rolling over for Trump.”
What Happened on the Senate Floor
Murray and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, sought unanimous consent to pass the bill, according to a release from the Appropriations Committee’s Democratic staff. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., blocked it. The bill would nullify the $810 million pocket rescission the White House sent to Congress last Friday. It would also bar any president from submitting rescission requests under the Impoundment Control Act fewer than 90 days before the funds expire.
Unanimous consent is a procedural shortcut that bypasses roll-call votes, so a single objection is enough to stop a bill. Talking Points Memo reported that Johnson said he was happy to reject the request, arguing the Impoundment Control Act is poorly written and that the White House’s request was not large enough. He delivered a lengthy speech about the national deficit. NBC News reported that Johnson said during the floor debate, “Every president since President Ford believed he had that ability to do pocket rescissions.”
“Theft From the American People”
Ahead of the attempt, Murray told the chamber that President Trump had announced on Friday night that he was taking more money from Americans. “Thank you to my colleague from Oregon for setting out what is going on here because, as he said, on Friday night, President Trump announced that he was stealing more money from the American people. Trump and his budget director Russ Vought call it a ‘pocket rescission.’ Well, whatever you call it, it’s illegal,” she said.
She described the maneuver in terms of the bipartisan spending bills Congress already passed. “Trump is taking the bipartisan funding that we passed—funding that Democrats and Republicans agreed on, that he signed into law—and he is now ripping out the pages he doesn’t like. Forget about ideas like Congress and the law,” Murray said. She continued: “Look, this is theft from the American people—plain and simple. In this case, Trump is tearing away funding to help Americans buy a home, he’s cutting off funds for health care research which would prevent things like dangerous hospital infections that are dangerous or saving taxpayers literally billions of dollars.”
Murray also tied the cuts to the war. “But you know what, Trump could not care less. While he blows your tax dollars on an illegal war, Trump is illegally cutting off funding for health research, housing, and more,” she said. The remark echoes her comments in early August on a stopgap spending bill. She said then that the measure rejected the “wish list President Trump requested for the Pentagon,” including funding for so-called “Trump-class” battleships and a $70 billion request to bankroll what she called his “disastrous Iran war.”
“Where Are My Republican Colleagues?”
Murray directed much of her criticism at Republicans who had helped pass the funding. “But where are my Republican colleagues who helped pass these funds that Trump is now stealing? Because this didn’t come out of left field. No one can pretend to be surprised by what is happening now,” she said. She noted that Vought had been open about his intentions when he was nominated. “When Russ Vought was nominated as Trump’s budget chief, he was pretty darn transparent about the fact that he planned to break the law, he planned to tear up our bills, and he dared us to stop him. But that didn’t stop every Republican Senator from voting for him—and when his deputy was nominated and told us this summer that pocket rescissions were very much still on the table, what happened? Once again, every Senate Republican voted to confirm him too.”
She pointed to last year’s use of the same tool and to repeated Democratic efforts to block it. “Anyone watching could see this coming from a mile away—Trump used this scheme to unlawfully impound $5 billion last summer, for heaven’s sake. That’s why Democrats have fought again, and again, and again, to prevent the president from being able to use this illegal tactic, including in recent negotiations over the CR that’s now law,” she said. “But Republicans have refused to work with us to prevent Trump and Russ Vought from stealing from the American people. Time, after time, after time, they have shot down our attempts to stop this administration from defying Congress and robbing our constituents.” Her office said Republicans have rejected every Democratic attempt over the last 18 months to enact new protections against pocket rescissions.
Rural Housing and Other Funds at Stake
Murray said the rescission was only part of a larger pattern. “We should be clear: Trump isn’t just illegally robbing our constituents through this pocket rescission. There are a whole lot of other funds that he is refusing to get out the door: more health research funding, grants to prevent teen pregnancy, funding to protect Americans from global health threats, and even a quarter of a billion dollars to help families in rural areas get the financing they need to finally achieve their dream of owning a home,” she said. “Hundreds of families in rural America will be denied the shot to buy a home as Trump lights this money on fire tonight.”
She closed with an appeal to Republicans. “Russ Vought has always made his message to Congress painfully clear: he thinks the votes that we all take here don’t count. He thinks the laws we pass are optional. Now is the time for our Republican colleagues who said they would never let this happen to help us pass a bill that makes our message to Russ Vought equally clear: stop stealing from our constituents and start following our laws.”
Background: The $810 Million Package
The White House announced the package on Friday, Sept. 25, describing it as cutting nearly $1 billion in what it called “the most harmful government spending.” The administration listed $567 million from Health and Human Services funds for noncitizens, along with reductions to Department of Homeland Security, education, housing counseling, and international programs. The announcement cited “long-neglected Presidential authorities” under the Impoundment Control Act and referred to a similar move last year, which is the first use of a pocket rescission in nearly 50 years.
A pocket rescission works through timing. A formal request starts a 45-day clock during which the executive branch may withhold the money while Congress considers it. If the request arrives within 45 days of the fiscal year’s end, Budget Director Vought contends, the funds can be withheld until they expire, whether or not Congress acts. The Government Accountability Office has previously said pocket rescissions violate the law. On Tuesday, in a letter to congressional leaders, it reasserted that position and declared the latest attempt illegal.
Republican Criticism and Democratic Reaction
The package also drew criticism from within the Republican Party. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Friday that Congress received the package “without warning or consultation.” She called it the latest attempt by the Office of Management and Budget to undermine Congress’s power of the purse and said it showed OMB had withheld the funds on purpose to carry out an “unlawful cancellation of appropriations.” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Republicans had “pledged allegiance to Trump instead of to citizens.”
Murray’s Earlier Statements on Trump and Taxpayer Dollars
In her Sept. 25 statement, Murray said Democrats had fought to put pocket-rescission language in the recently enacted stopgap bill but that “for the second time in a year, Republicans refused to take common sense action.” She also said the funds had been cut off by “a president more focused on building a ballroom than investing in families.” Earlier this month, she responded to a GAO report finding the administration spent $9.5 billion paying federal workers not to work, calling it “the most expensive way imaginable to make government worse.”
Murray has used similar language about Republican votes before. On June 4, she wrote on X that Republicans voted down an amendment to block a $1.8 billion fund for Jan. 6 defendants, saying they were “choosing to bend the knee to this corrupt President.”
What Comes Next
Because the bill was brought up by unanimous consent, Johnson’s objection effectively ends its path to passage for now. With the fiscal year ending Wednesday, the rescission package’s funds are set to expire. Murray serves as Vice Chair of the committee that writes the annual spending bills funding the Pentagon and other agencies, and her remarks suggest the dispute over executive spending power will carry into the next round of funding negotiations.