The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate is running out of time to pass a bill that would cut billions of dollars from foreign aid — as well as defund NPR and PBS — and one Senate Republican says his colleagues are particularly afraid of President Donald Trump’s wrath if they fail.
Politico reported Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is being particularly cagey about whether the Senate Republican Conference has the stomach to vote for a “rescissions package” — the term used for previously appropriated money Congress is clawing back — that the House of Representatives passed last month. That legislation would codify some of the funding cuts greenlit by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that would strip more than $9 billion from foreign aid programs and public broadcasting. Under rescission rules, the Senate only has until July 18 to pass it, or else the Trump administration will be legally required to spend the money as appropriated.
Some Senate Republicans have indicated that they aim to amend the bill to protect funding for the PEPFAR program, which provides critically needed resources for countries battling AIDS. Trump wants to slash PEPFAR’s budget by $400 million.
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“I have already made clear I don’t support the cuts to PEPFAR and child and maternal health,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Politico.
While Collins is one of the moderates who voted against Trump’s massive budget recently signed into law, the rescissions package has also notably been criticized by Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who is typically a reliable conservative vote. South Dakota’s junior U.S. senator said that in addition to protecting PEPFAR, he may submit an amendment to also preserve funding for NPR and PBS affiliates. Rounds said rural communities in particular “can’t lose these small-town radio stations across the country that are literally the only way to get out an emergency message.”
However, concerns about AIDS relief funding and public broadcasting may end up being outweighed by politics, according to Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.). The Louisiana Republican said that if the Senate doesn’t pass the bill, it would be considered an “embarrassment to the president” and that Trump “will go nuts.”
“I think if the Republicans in the United States Senate do not pass the rescission package, after all the rhetoric about reducing spending, then they should hide their head in the bag, and I think the White House will provide the bag,” Kennedy said.
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Click here to read Politico’s report in full.