The maneuver claws back money lawmakers appropriated, timed just days before the current fiscal year ends and the new one begins next week. The House had already left Washington and isn't scheduled to return until after the November midterm elections.
Top appropriators from both parties denounced the move right away. They accused the administration of acting illegally by first holding up the money, then canceling it outright, a sequence that cuts Congress out of decisions it's constitutionally supposed to control.
The fight centers on who actually holds the power of the purse. Congress approves spending. This move lets the executive branch effectively veto it after the fact, without a vote or a real chance for lawmakers to push back. Programs in health and education depending on that $810 million now lose it, with no window left for Congress to intervene before the fiscal year turns over.
Lawmakers went home. The money didn't wait for them to come back.