By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate on Wednesday moved toward approval of President Donald Trump’s plan for billions of dollars in cuts to funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, which would hand Trump another victory as he exerts control over Congress.
The Senate was due to debate amendments to the rescissions package, Trump’s request to cut spending previously approved by Congress. Vice President JD Vance was needed to break 50-50 ties over two procedural hurdles on Tuesday, when three Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against the measure.
More Republicans had objected to Trump’s plan to slash life-saving global health programs. But they moved into the “yes” column after Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on Tuesday that PEPFAR, a global program to fight HIV/AIDS launched in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush, was being exempted.
The change brought the size of the package of cuts to $9 billion from $9.4 billion.
Congress has until Friday to pass the rescissions. Otherwise, the request would expire and the White House will be required to adhere to spending plans passed by Congress.
Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine voted against moving the legislation closer to passage.
“You don’t need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” Murkowski said in a Senate speech.
She said the Trump administration also had not provided assurances that battles against diseases such as malaria and polio worldwide would be maintained. Most of all, Murkowski said, Congress must assert its role in deciding how federal funds were spent.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, called Trump’s request a “small, but important step toward fiscal sanity.”
The PEPFAR change in the Senate version of the legislation means it must go back to the House of Representatives for a vote before it can be sent to the White House for Trump’s signature.
DOGE CUTS
The amounts at stake are extremely small in the context of the $6.8 trillion federal budget. They also represent only a tiny portion of all of the funds approved by Congress that the Trump administration has held up as it has pursued sweeping cuts, including those ordered by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
As of mid-June, Trump was blocking $425 billion, according to Democratic lawmakers tracking frozen funding.
“Today, Senate Republicans turn this chamber into a subservient rubberstamp for the executive, at the behest of Donald Trump,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said.
“Republicans embrace the credo of cut, cut, cut now, and ask questions later,” Schumer said.
The foreign aid initiatives in Trump’s request for cuts included lifesaving support for women and children’s health and vaccination programs that have long had strong bipartisan support. PEPFAR alone is credited with saving 26 million lives.
The package also cuts funds supporting public broadcasting, which can be the main source of emergency information in rural areas. Senator Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, was concerned about funding cuts to Native American radio stations, but said he would support the rescissions after the administration promised to fund some tribal broadcasters separately.
Standalone rescissions packages have not passed in decades, with lawmakers reluctant to cede their constitutionally mandated control of spending. But Trump’s Republicans, who hold narrow majorities in the Senate and House, have backed all of his policies since he began his second term in January.
The House passed the rescissions legislation without altering Trump’s request by 214-212 last month. Four Republicans joined 208 Democrats in voting no.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Bo Erickson; Editing by David Gregorio)
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