House Republicans on Thursday agreed to cancel $9.4 billion in federal spending for foreign aid and public radio and broadcasting, marking the first time Congress has formally weighed in on Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts.
President Donald Trump is using the rarely used tool, known on Capitol Hill as “rescissions,” to claw back federal dollars that Congress has already approved — something that lawmakers are typically loathe to support. Yet this specific push, which would target the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the United States Agency for International Development, is broadly popular within the GOP.
If also approved by the Senate, the spending cuts package, while far more limited in scope than the more than $1 trillion in cuts promised by the Department of Government Efficiency, would insulate the Trump administration from legal challenges related to its slashes to federal funding. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he expects additional requests from the White House in the future.
The White House’s spending cuts ran into resistance among some centrist Hill Republicans, who do support some federal dollars going to programs like PBS. Others disliked Trump’s plans to cut funds to fight global AIDS through the Bush-era program PEPFAR.
GOP leaders ultimately convinced their members to back Trump’s plan, after several days of cajoling by top Republicans and White House officials — and a promise to keep some of the funds dedicated to fighting AIDS globally.
The request will now go to the Senate, where just 51 Republicans need to agree. But it’s fate there is unclear, as multiple GOP senators have raised concerns about the cuts. That includes Sen. Susan Collins, who told CNN on Monday that she has major misgivings about the global health cuts, including PEPFAR, and is trying to make changes to the measure.
“I think we can change it. We’re still figuring out what the set rules are,” Collins said.
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