The U.S. Government Accountability Office reaffirmed that President Trump’s use of a pocket rescission to cancel $810 million in federal funding was unlawful, revising the initially reported amount of nearly $1 billion. GAO lead attorney Edda Emmanuelli Perez said the President’s September 25, 2026, rescission proposals did not authorize withholding the appropriations under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The funds primarily supported Health and Human Services programs serving undocumented immigrants, unaccompanied children in court and other vulnerable groups, including minority students and refugee resettlement. GAO said the law permits only temporary withholding and that, unless Congress rescinds the funds, they must remain available for obligation. Because the action occurred close to the September 30 fiscal-year deadline, the funding was likely to remain unspent through year’s end. The dispute has intensified an already partisan appropriations process and divided Republicans, with Susan Collins, John Thune, Lisa Murkowski, Mike Rounds and Don Bacon raising legal or procedural concerns, while Lauren Boebert and the House Freedom Caucus supported President Trump and OMB Director Russell Vought. Vought called GAO partisan, while the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision allowed the administration to use the process at an early stage of litigation.