The Senate passed a $9 billion rescissions package backed by the White House—targeting the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which partially funds National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)—in a 51-48 vote in the early morning hours of Thursday.
Despite opposition from two Republicans—Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski—most GOP senators supported the bill, which now heads to the House for a final vote by Friday. The measure was approved in a 51-48 vote at 2:30 a.m. after voting for more than 12 hours on amendments.
The bill asks lawmakers to claw back $7.9 billion in funding from foreign-aid programs via USAID, as well as rescind $1.1 billion from left-leaning public broadcasters NPR and PBS, defunding them for the next two fiscal years.
Now the bill returns to the House for final approval, where it must pass by Friday under the budget rules Republicans are using to move the package without Democratic votes. If successful, it will head to President Trump’s desk shortly thereafter.
The win is more symbolic than substantive. It serves as a small tangible result of President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort to defund the bloated federal government. However, the Trump administration must codify more DOGE cuts into law to avoid upsetting the base.
“It’s a small but important step toward fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said ahead of the final vote earlier this morning.
Related:
Not codifying more DOGE cuts at this point is madness, especially considering the time Elon Musk and others have put into the initiative, and the relentless work of DOGE teams to root out waste and fraud across the federal government. It’s time to lock in more cuts and finish the job of draining the swamp of radical leftists.
Loading…
