Senate passes $9 BILLION in spending cuts targeting USAID, PBS, NPR

The Senate early Thursday voted 51 to 48 to approve a $9 billion rescissions package, cutting federal funds for international aid programs as well as for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

Senators debated amendments for more than 12 hours on the package before passing the bill just after 2 am, per The Hill. “It’s a small but important step toward fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD).

Under Trump's first term, there was a $15 billion rescissions plan that did not pass, but this time around, a larger GOP majority in Congress allowed the legislation to pass. The two Republicans who voted against the package were Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). The package will now head to the House for a final vote.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) opposed two procedural votes earlier in the week but supported the final measure with the package, meaning Vice President JD Vance did not have to vote. Vance did, however, vote in a previous procedural vote for the package. Democrats were also down one member at the time of the vote, as Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) has been in the hospital.

The package cuts $8 billion from different international aid programs, including funding to USAID as well as the economic support fund. It also cuts $1 billion from the CPB, which funds NPR and PBS.

The GOP has been pushing to make the cuts to the CPB, citing a perceived left-wing bias at NPR as well as PBS over the years.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said of the vote, "I hope that the administration keeps sending us rescissions packages. That’s the only way I can see us reducing spending.”

“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, we’re going to cut them off like a dead stump,” he added in his statement, and pointed to NPR CEO Katherine Maher’s social media, where she has said that “America is addicted to white supremacy.”