Sponsors
Last progress June 5, 2025 (8 months ago)
Introduced on June 5, 2025 by David Schweikert
Referred to the House Committee on Appropriations.
Permanently cancels any unused (unobligated) amounts from discretionary appropriations that were available for fiscal year 2021 and earlier, and returns the recovered money to the U.S. Treasury’s general fund. The recovered funds are required to be used only to reduce the federal deficit.
Permanently rescinds (cancels) the unobligated balances of any discretionary appropriations made available for fiscal year 2021 and any previous fiscal year.
Requires that any amounts rescinded under this section be deposited in the general fund of the Treasury and used solely for deficit reduction.
Who is affected and how:
Federal agencies: Most directly affected because they will lose access to unobligated discretionary balances from FY2021 and earlier. That reduces agencies' available carryover funds that might have been used to start or finish projects, make awards, or cover cost overruns without new appropriations.
Recipients of federal programs and grant applicants: May be indirectly affected if agencies had planned to obligate those unobligated funds for future grants, contracts, or payments; some planned awards could be reduced, delayed, or require new appropriations to proceed.
Federal contractors and grantees: Could see reduced opportunities or funding if agencies cannot obligate previously available balances.
Federal budget and taxpayers: The recovered funds increase the Treasury general fund and are earmarked to reduce the federal deficit, improving the federal books by the amount cancelled.
Congress and budget planners: May need to consider additional appropriations if cancelled balances were intended to cover multi-year commitments; agencies may request new funding in future appropriations cycles.
Net effect: The law converts previously available but unused discretionary resources into deficit reduction dollars. The measure reduces flexible fiscal resources available to agencies and program recipients, while providing a direct one-time improvement to the federal deficit position.