Congress has approved President Trump’s package of billions of dollars worth of spending cuts — called rescissions. The clawback of federal funding will have a big impact on foreign aid programs and public media.

However, veterans of Capitol Hill appropriations fights — from across the political spectrum — are worried about what the recissions say about the balance of power in Washington. Who really holds “the power of the purse?”

The law allows the President to ask Congress to “rescind” funds or projects and programs the legislative branch already agreed to pay for. But there was something unusual about these rescissions.

“Only Republicans supported the rescissions package. And so, in that case it was breaking the precedent of Republicans and Democrats working together to decide how to fund the government,” said Joshua Rowley, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center.

Usually, the parties have to work together to pass annual “appropriations” bills, because in the Senate, you need 60 votes to pass a spending bill. 

“And no party almost ever, has 60 votes,” said Bobby Kogan at the Center for American Progress. “So, these things end up getting both parties to work, and no one gets exactly what they want.”

But this time, after lawmakers struck a bipartisan deal in March to fund the government, Republicans alone just voted to change it. They did it just as Congress is negotiating the next round of funding.

“And so, the question for Democrats is, how can you know that whatever deal you try to reach with Republicans, won't then just be cut again in the same way that just happened,” said Devin O’Connor, a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The White House said more rescissions are coming and the administration’s fine with them passing on a partisan basis.

All of this could set up for a government shutdown in the fall if Democrats don’t trust the GOP on a deal. 

“In the bigger picture, what's at stake is whether the representatives who we elect and send to Congress are really the ones making the spending decisions for our nation,” said Philip Wallach, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Wallach explained that the broader concern is about the balance of power in federal budgeting — specifically, who gets the final say.

“Or whether, in fact, they get to sort of offer their opinion, but then it's the president and the people who work for him that are deciding what kind of spending actually gets done,” said Wallach.

And that would be a major shift in how our constitutional system functions.