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The House on Friday narrowly approved President Donald Trump’s request to cancel approximately $9 billion in federal funding, including steep cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid programs.
The 216-213 vote marked the first successful presidential rescissions request in decades. The bill now heads to Trump’s desk for his signature. The White House has signaled that additional proposals of this nature could follow.
“We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., following the vote. Though some Republicans expressed unease with the spending reductions, most ultimately supported the bill.
Two Republicans, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Mike Turner, R-Ohio, voted against the bill.
No Democrats voted for the measure in either chamber. The Senate passed the package early Thursday morning on a 51-48 party-line vote, with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joining Democrats in opposition.
The rescissions package eliminates $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the full amount it was slated to receive over the next two fiscal years. The CPB distributes over two-thirds of its funding to more than 1,500 local public television and radio stations. The remainder supports national programming through outlets such as National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
The legislation also cuts nearly $8 billion from foreign aid, including $800 million for emergency services to refugees and $496 million for disaster relief efforts. An additional $4.15 billion was allocated to programs aimed at promoting economic growth and democratic institutions in developing countries.
Facing objections from several Senate Republicans, GOP leaders removed a $400 million proposed cut to PEPFAR, the global HIV/AIDS program launched under President George W. Bush.
The bill’s passage follows closely behind Trump’s tax and spending cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill that was approved without Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that legislation will add about $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
