Vice President Vance on Tuesday night broke a tie to allow the Senate to begin debate on a bill to claw back billions of dollars in funding previously authorized by Congress for foreign aid and public broadcasting.
The chamber voted 50-50 to begin debate on the package of cuts. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.) voted against the motion. The vote came shortly after the three also voted against discharging the rescissions package from the Appropriations Committee, forcing Vance to break that tie as well.
Senators expect a marathon voting session on potential changes to the bill in the day ahead as Senate leaders look to pass the measure ahead of a looming Friday deadline.
The bill, which passed the House last month, calls for about $8 billion in cuts to the United States Agency for International Development and foreign aid, and more than $1 billion in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
Murkowski and Collins both expressed concerns about the cuts to public broadcasting and the way the rescissions package had been presented to Congress.
“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. We’re lawmakers. We should be legislating,” Murkowski said on the Senate floor earlier Tuesday.
Collins, in a statement, said “I recognize the need to reduce excessive spending and I have supported rescissions in our appropriations bills many times, including the 70 rescissions that were included in the year-long funding bill that we are currently operating under. But to carry out our Constitutional responsibility, we should know exactly what programs are affected and the consequences of rescissions.”
The vote comes after the Trump administration worked with Republicans on potential changes to the package after some expressed concerns about the scope of cuts.
White House budget chief Russell Vought told reporters on Tuesday that the administration would be “fine with” an amendment to the package that shields the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) from proposed cuts in the package.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who had previously held off from backing the package due to concerns about how tribal stations would fare proposed public media cuts, also said he’d support the plan after a deal with the administration.
Rounds said Tuesday that he worked with OMB on a deal that would redirect some funding approved under the Biden administration as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
“We have an agreement with OMB to resource the funds from other already allocated funding through what had been [former President] Biden’s Green New Deal program, and we’ll take that money and we’ll reallocate it back into the tribes to take care of these radio stations that have been granted this money for the next two years,” Rounds told reporters Tuesday.
While the CPB provides some funding to NPR and PBS, which have come under heavy GOP scrutiny as the party has leveled allegations of bias against the media organizations, Republicans in both chambers have raised concerns the cuts could have a disproportionate effect on rural and tribal stations.
Top Republicans are ramping up work to lock down support for Trump’s package to claw back previously congressionally approved funds. The party can afford to lose three votes in the Senate.
Congress has until July 18 to pass the legislation under the special rescissions process initiated by the White House last month that allows the Senate to approve the funding cuts with a simple majority vote, bypassing expected Democratic opposition.
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