Topline
The Senate voted to approve a White House request to cancel $9 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting early on Thursday, handing President Donald Trump and his administration a significant win in their push to gain more control over federal spending.
Key Facts
The rescissions package, which will claw back the $9 billion in funding, was approved with a 51-48 vote.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, were the only two GOP senators who voted against the bill while Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., was unable to vote as she had been taken to the hospital earlier in the day after she “started to not feel well.”
Former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, who had sided with Murkowski and Collins to block a procedural vote on the bill, voted in favor of its final passage.
The bill now moves to the GOP-controlled House, which is expected to pass it later this week.
The legislation agrees to claw back $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—which helps fund public broadcasters like PBS and NPR—and around $8 billion from foreign aid programs including allocations to the United States Agency For International Development (USAID).
Despite voting against the rescissions package, Collins was able to secure a major concession to remove a measure which would have cut $400 million in funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
Chief Critic
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted: “With these Republican cuts, this is a dark day for America, a dark day for rural Americans, a dark day for any American who relies on public broadcasting during floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other disasters. Democrats will not stop fighting back for the American people.”
This is a developing story.