House Weighs Senate Funding Bill That Would Delay New White House Funding Rules to Combat ‘Wasteful Spending’

The U.S. House of Representatives is weighing a Senate funding bill that would delay the implementation of White House rules to combat “wasteful spending” of the kind targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency last year.

The White House Office of Management and Budget proposed a regulation for federal financial assistance in May, aiming to enable agencies to combat funding for “wasteful and divisive activities unrelated to core purposes of federal government programs.” The regulations change rules in the Uniform Guidance, giving federal agencies the ability to suspend and cancel grants and contracts “at any time” if they no longer advance agency priorities or the national interest.

The proposed rules cite examples of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the promotion of “anti-American ideologies,” and “AI-powered social media censorship tools.” DOGE targeted this sort of funding, but courts blocked the cancellation of some grants due to existing Uniform Guidance rules.

“Grantmaking practices resulting in wasteful spending that became prevalent during the previous administration can only be stopped through adherence to strong internal controls at federal agencies and enhanced oversight regarding how federal dollars are spent,” the proposed rules state.

The House passed a bill on July 21 to fund the government through Dec. 4, without any provision related to the OMB rule. Yet the Senate passed its own funding bill on Aug. 8, funding the government through Dec. 11 and stating that OMB would not implement the rule through Dec. 11.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, sent a letter to OMB Director Russ Vought in July, asking that he withdraw portions of the rules and extend the time for public comment on the rule.

“OMB states that the intent of these changes is to ‘improve transparency, accountability, and oversight’ for” federal contracts and grants, Sen. Collins wrote. “While I agree these principles should guide the administration and oversight of federal funds, the rule would impose new, burdensome requirements on award recipients that would harm small and rural communities, undermine scientific and biomedical research, and conflict with Congress’ control over the federal funding process.”

Sen. Collins’ office did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.

The public comment period for the proposed rules ended on July 13.

The House has yet to reconcile its funding package with the Senate’s funding bill. It remains unclear whether House lawmakers will accept the Senate provision delaying the OMB implementation. If legislators remove the language in negotiations, the grantmaking overhaul could continue moving forward on OMB’s original timeline.

The Daily Signal reached out to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.