White House Rescinds Millions for International Ed Programs

The White House is rescinding millions for education programs that support migrant students and international education.

The Trump administration on Friday sent Congress a package of rescissions totaling $810 million that it says cancels “the most harmful government spending.” Under federal law, the administration can withhold the funds for 45 days while Congress considers the request. But with just a few days left before the end of the fiscal year, the money will be canceled before Congress can weigh in. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has said this so-called pocket rescission is illegal, in that it allows the president to avoid spending money that Congress appropriated.

Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who chairs the appropriations committee, condemned the rescissions package in a social media post, saying it undermines Congress’s constitutional powers.

“Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law,” she wrote. “I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions.”

A White House fact sheet about the rescissions doesn’t provide many specifics on which programs and offices are affected. It says the package includes $25 million for the Education Department’s Special Programs for Migrant Students and $70 million for “woke international education.” The administration also canceled millions in research funds. The White House didn’t respond to a request for more information.

Congress had appropriated just over $50 million for the migrant students program, but the White House argues it “subsidizes aliens to come to the U.S. and utilize our education system at the expense of American workers and their children” and criticized grants focused on LGBTQ+ issues. Funding for migrant education programs was disrupted last fiscal year, and it is unclear which grants are specifically affected by this latest rescission.

According to the White House’s briefing, the $70 million for international education funded grants and fellowships “to support institutions bringing foreign students and faculty to the United States to study or teach language, conduct research, and provide professional and curriculum development.”

“These programs have deviated from their core mission and instead support wasteful and divisive projects, including doctoral dissertations on queer and trans community building in foreign countries,” the White House said in the fact sheet.

In its budget for fiscal year 2026, Congress appropriated $80.6 million for the department’s International Education and Foreign Language programs, which includes the Fulbright-Hays program and grants to support centers on campus devoted to foreign languages and area studies.

The other rescissions include $28 million for research programs at the Department of Health and Human Services, which the administration says is “wasteful, duplicative, and sometimes outright harmful and blatantly ideological grant funding.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, called the rescissions an “illegal power grab” in a statement.

“The real question is whether my Republican colleagues will finally find their collective backbone and do something about it,” he added.