House Republicans float one spending cut in a debt ceiling bill: rescinding approved but unspent Covid relief funds.
showing $4.61 trillion has been authorized in Covid-19 spending, but $4.12 trillion has been spent. That leaves nearly $500 billion in unspent funds, although a portion of that has been “obligated” to certain pots of money and may be difficult to return to the U.S. Treasury.
Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., a Ways and Means member, signaled support for the idea, but cautioned that there’ll be challenges in identifying and reclaiming the unspent money. “There’s some disputes on what the dollar amounts actually are, and what’s actually technically obligated and what’s not obligated,” Schweikert said. “Because we have some states that … put it into their rainy day funds. And there’s specific language that you can’t supplant it. So that’s that sort of thing you’re going to have to dig into and figure out what’s really there.”
At an Oversight Committee hearing about federal pandemic spending on Wednesday, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., pressed the U.S. Government Accountability Office on how much of the money is left and unspoken for. “As of November 2022, there’s about $157 billion unobligated funds,” Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general, responded.On Capitol Hill, some Republicans believe a proposal like tapping excess Covid money could fall into a political sweet spot that adheres to both parties' red lines on the debt ceiling. It may satisfy GOP demands to cut some spending — though it won't come close to addressing conservative wishes to balance the budget.
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