By Bo Erickson and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on Thursday on President Donald Trump’s $9 billion funding cut to public media and to foreign aid, after the U.S. Senate approved the package.
House Republicans were poised to vote in favor of the funding cut package, altered by the Senate this week to exclude cuts of about $400 million in funds for a HIV/AIDS prevention program.
The vote, scheduled for Thursday evening, could be close. In June, four Republicans joined Democrats to vote against the package, which passed 214-212.
House Republicans are feeling extra pressure now, as Trump’s administration would be forced to spend the money if Congress does not approve the cuts by the end of the week.
The $9 billion at stake amounts to roughly one-tenth of one percent of the $6.8 trillion federal budget. Senate Republican Leader John Thune argued it is a “small, but important step toward fiscal sanity.”
Republicans say the foreign aid funds previously went to programs that they deem wasteful, and they say the $1 billion in public media funding supports radio stations and PBS television that unfairly targets conservative viewpoints.
In the 51-48 Senate vote, only two Republicans, Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, voted against the funding cut. Both questioned why the legislative body — constitutionally responsible for the power of the purse — was taking direction from the executive branch to slash funding through the so-called “rescissions” package that was passed by the Republican-controlled Congress in March.
“There’s a good reason I think that we haven’t seen a successful rescissions package before the Senate in almost 33 years,” Murkowski said in a Senate floor speech this week, “It’s because we’ve recognized that, ‘hey, that’s our role here.’ “
Funding cuts are regularly approved with bipartisan support in Congress through the appropriations process.
But Democratic leaders this week warned this one-party cut could damage the necessary bipartisanship to pass funding bills in the Senate that requires 60 votes from a mix of the Republican majority and Democratic senators.
“Republicans embrace the credo of cut, cut, cut now, and ask questions later,” the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said.
But this week’s potential funding claw back represents only a tiny portion of all the funds approved by Congress that the Trump administration has held up while it has pursued sweeping cuts.
Democratic lawmakers accuse the administration of blocking more than $425 billion so far this year.
White House Budget Director Russ Vought said more spending-cut requests are likely in store. “I think it’s likely you’ll see an additional package,” he told reporters.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Bo Erickson; additional reporting by Ryan P. Jones; Editing by Andy Sullivan and David Gregorio)
