The president is looking to claw back $1.1 billion of funding authority from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and about $8.3 billion from foreign aid programs. Congress has until Friday to get a bill to the president's desk for his signature or the spending stands.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said some GOP senators would like to see “modest changes” to the bill. He'll need nearly every Republican senator on board to get the package approved.
“We’re trying to find out if there’s a path forward that gets us 51 (votes) and stays consistent with what the White House proposed in terms of a rescissions package,” Thune told reporters.
Republicans were expected to hear directly from Russ Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, during their weekly conference luncheon on Tuesday as the White House worked to address their concerns.
The White House campaign to win over potential holdouts was already having some success. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., tweeted that he would vote to support the measure after working with the administration to “find Green New Deal money that could be reallocated to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption.”
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she still had questions about what the administration was seeking to cut from global health programs.
