Spending bills generally need bipartisan support to advance in the Senate. But the legislation before the Senate gives Republicans the opportunity to undo some of the previously approved spending without Democratic support as they follow through on Trump's efforts to target the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and roll back some foreign aid.
The Trump administration is promising more rescission packages to come if the first effort is successful.
The move to cut a sliver of previously approved spending comes after Republicans muscled Trump's big tax and spending cut bill to approval in both chambers without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase future federal deficits by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Republicans were using the president's rescissions request to target “wasteful spending.”
“It's a small but important step for fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue,” Thune said as the Senate opened on Wednesday.
Lawmakers clash over cuts to public radio and TV stations
The legislation would claw back nearly $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which represents the full amount it’s due to receive during the next two budget years.
The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense.
The corporation distributes more than 70% of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming.
Some Republicans had expressed worries about how local radio and televisions stations would be able to survive without federal assistance. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some funding administered by the Department of the Interior would be repurposed to subsidize Native American public radio stations in more than a dozen states.
Kate Riley, president and CEO of America's Public Television Stations, a network of locally owned and operated stations, said the side deal was “at best a short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at the stations it purports to save, while leaving behind all other stations, including many that serve Native populations.”
The legislation would also claw back about $8 billion in foreign aid spending.
Republicans are facing a Friday deadline
Republicans providing just enough votes to take up the bill, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a 50-50 tie on Tuesday night. Three Republicans joined with Democrats in voting against advancing the measure. That sets up on Wednesday what's known as a vote-a-rama, in which lawmakers will vote on scores of proposed amendments to the bill. Once the amendment process is over, the Senate will vote on final passage.
The House has already shown its support for the president’s request with a mostly party line 214-212 vote, but since the Senate is amending the bill, it will have to go back to the House for another vote.
The bill must be signed into law by midnight Friday for the proposed rescissions to kick in. If Congress doesn't act by then, the spending stands.
