With three days to go before a US government shutdown, an advocacy group that tracks federal spending warns that about 8bn approved by Congress for health care and education is at risk of going unused, held back by President Donald Trump's administration.
The potential 'backdoor cuts' identified by the litigation-focused group Protect Democracy are an example of the way the White House, in pushing to remake the government, is setting aside agreements reached by Congress, which the US constitution gives authority over spending.
It's an approach that has helped to deepen the distrust with legislators that has prevented an agreement on funding the government into the new fiscal year that starts on Wednesday. US legislators are also taking notice of the administration's approach, as Senate appropriations chair Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, wrote to the administration on Thursday with Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, to push for full funding this year not elimination -- of 21 educational and cultural exchange state department programmes across the world. This funding was approved in a bill Trump himself signed into law in March.