Washington — The Senate handed President Trump’s request to rescind $9 billion in international support and public broadcasting funding early Thursday, culminating an hours-long “vote-a-rama” and sending it again to the Home forward of a Friday deadline.
In a 51-48 vote, Republicans Susan Collins, of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, joined Democrats in opposing the package deal.
Vice President JD Vance, who solid two tie-breaking votes Tuesday for the measure to clear procedural hurdles, was not wanted for remaining passage. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota was hospitalized and missed the vote.
Each chambers have to approve the request earlier than it expires on the finish of the week, or the funds must be spent as lawmakers beforehand meant.
The Home authorised the unique $9.4 billion rescissions request final month, but it surely confronted pushback within the Senate, the place some Republicans opposed slashing international well being help and funding for native radio and tv stations.
The Senate started the prolonged vote collection Wednesday afternoon, rejecting dozens of amendments on retaining worldwide support and sparing public broadcasting from cuts.
The Senate’s model targets roughly $8 billion for international help applications, together with the USA Company for Worldwide Improvement, or USAID. The package deal additionally consists of about $1 billion in cuts for the Company for Public Broadcasting, which helps public radio and tv stations, together with NPR and PBS.
Senate Republicans met with Mr. Trump’s price range director, Russell Vought, on Tuesday as GOP leaders labored to get holdouts on board forward of the procedural votes later within the day. Vought left the assembly saying there could be a substitute modification that may remove $400 million in cuts to an AIDS prevention program, one in every of Collins’ essential issues.
Senate Majority Chief John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, stated he hoped the Home would settle for the “small modification.”
Senate Majority Chief John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, walks from the Senate ground to his workplace on the Capitol on July 16, 2025.
ALEX WROBLEWSKI / AFP by way of Getty Pictures
When requested concerning the $400 million change, Home Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, advised reporters “we wanted them to pass it unaltered like we did.”
“We need to claw back funding, and we’ll do as much as we’re able,” Johnson added.
However the change didn’t fulfill Collins and Murkowski.
The holdouts stated the administration’s request lacks particulars about how the cuts will probably be applied.
“To carry out our Constitutional responsibility, we should know exactly what programs are affected and the consequences of rescissions,” Collins stated in an announcement Tuesday.
In a ground speech forward of the procedural votes, Murkowski additionally stated Congress shouldn’t hand over its price range oversight.
“I don’t want us to go from one reconciliation bill to a rescissions package to another rescissions package to a reconciliation package to a continuing resolution,” she stated. “We’re lawmakers. We should be legislating. What we’re getting now is a direction from the White House and being told, ‘This is the priority, we want you to execute on it, we’ll be back with you with another round.’ I don’t accept that.”
Cuts to native radio and tv stations, particularly in rural areas the place they’re essential for speaking emergency messages, have been one other level of competition within the Senate. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, of South Dakota, who had issues concerning the cuts, stated funding could be reallocated from local weather funds to maintain stations in tribal areas working “without interruption.”
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, who voted for the package deal, stated he anticipated that Congress must strive later to repair a number of the cuts as soon as their impacts are decided.
“I suspect we’re going to find out there are some things that we’re going to regret,” he stated Wednesday on the Senate ground. “I suspect that when we do we’ll have to come back and fix it, similar to what I’m trying to do with the bill I voted against a couple of weeks ago — the so-called Big, Beautiful Bill, that I think we’re going to have to go back and work on.”
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