Senate moves to debate cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid

The Senate is moving to vote this week on the Trump administration's request to claw back federal funding for public media and foreign assistance programs.

The House approved the package last month in a largely party-line vote, but several GOP senators are pressing for changes in the $9.4 billion in spending cuts the Office of Management and Budget asked Congress to eliminate. Some proposed cuts could be scaled back or new parameters could be added by Congress for the way funds are distributed.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters last week he expected the Senate would clear a procedural vote, which leaders are planning for Tuesday, to begin debating the measure. GOP leaders can only afford to lose three votes to pass the measure using a process that allows the Senate to get around a filibuster.

In a recent Senate Appropriations hearing about the rescissions package, several GOP senators raised concerns about the impact of the cuts on public radio and television stations in their states, and warned that zeroing out federal support would turn many communities into news deserts. The administration proposal eliminates $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is the full amount Congress already approved for the private, nonprofit agency for the next two fiscal years. Some Senate Republicans, like Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, have criticized NPR, arguing that its news coverage is ideologically biased, but suggested the Senate should tweak the bill to continue supporting local public media stations.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told reporters he's working to ensure that stations that serve Native Americans in his state continue to receive federal resources. "This has got to be resolved because this is where — in these rural areas — they get their emergency services, they get their announcements. They're not political in nature," he said.

Collins and other Republicans like Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have also raised concerns with the cuts to foreign assistance programs like PEPFAR, a global health initiative set up by former President George W. Bush to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic, noting the program has saved millions of lives.

Last week, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold his endorsement for any Republican who opposed the rescissions package. In a message on his social media platform, he said, "It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together."

Oklahoma GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin told reporters the president doesn't want changes to the package, but he didn't know if it could pass in its current form. Referring to some of his GOP colleagues, he said, "We have some unique personalities we've got to deal with, like the House does." But Mullin said he believed the Senate would pass something this week.

The package is the first attempt by the Trump administration to formally adopt some of the cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency, or "DOGE," the effort to slash federal spending, announced on its own. OMB Director Russ Vought also said the administration was considering additional rescissions packages to submit in the coming months.

Vought is expected to attend the weekly closed-door Senate GOP lunch on Tuesday to discuss the requests and concerns from individual senators. "I think it will be very helpful," Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who sponsored the bill, told reporters. He said the original mission of the CPB "may have been laudable at the time. There's such a greater diffusion of media now and personally I don't feel the need and I don't think the broad swath of our conference does either."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday the package "suffocates public broadcasting" and warned it "sets the stage for even more party line cuts in the future." He has also warned that if Senate Republicans move ahead with rescissions packages that undo funding levels set in bipartisan spending bills, Democrats could walk away from future talks on upcoming spending bills, increasing the odds of a government shutdown this fall.

Any proposed changes to the package would need to be vetted first by the Senate parliamentarian because of the process Republicans are using to pass the bill with a simple majority. If leaders secure the votes to begin debating the measure, senators can offer an unlimited number of amendments in a vote-a-rama, which could last hours. The amendments would also need to be approved by the parliamentarian, who decides whether they are germane to the legislation. But it's unlikely many, if any, of those amendments other than the one negotiated by GOP leaders will have the votes to pass.

If the Senate modifies the package the House passed, it would need to go back to the House for a vote on the new package, but it will be a tight window. Congress needs to complete action on this measure by July 18 to meet the 45-day deadline specified in the law. If it fails to act in time, the funds for the targeted programs must be released.

Disclosure: This story was written and reported by NPR Congressional Correspondent Deirdre Walsh and edited by Managing Editors Vickie Walton-James and Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

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