The U.S. Senate, early on Thursday (July 17, 2025), accredited U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for billions of {dollars} in cuts to funding for international assist and public broadcasting, handing the Republican president one other victory as he exerts management over Congress with little opposition.
The Senate voted 51 to 48 in favor of Mr. Trump’s request to chop $9 billion in spending already accredited by Congress.
Most of the cuts are to applications to help international international locations affected by illness, conflict and pure disasters, however the plan additionally eliminates all $1.1 billion the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was resulting from obtain over the following two years.
Mr. Trump and lots of of his fellow Republicans argue that spending on public broadcasting is an pointless expense and reject its information protection as affected by anti-right bias.
Standalone rescissions packages haven’t handed in a long time, with lawmakers reluctant to cede their constitutionally mandated management of spending. But Trump’s Republicans, who maintain slim majorities in the Senate and House, have proven little urge for food for resisting his insurance policies since he started his second time period in January.
The $9 billion at stake is extraordinarily small in the context of the $6.8 trillion federal funds, and represents solely a tiny portion of all of the funds accredited by Congress that the Trump administration has held up whereas it has pursued sweeping cuts, many ordered by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
As of mid-June, Mr. Trump was blocking $425 billion in funding that had already been appropriated and beforehand accredited by Congress, in response to Democratic lawmakers monitoring frozen funding.
However, Mr. Trump and his supporters have promised extra of the “rescission” requests to eradicate beforehand accredited spending in what they are saying is an effort to pare again the federal authorities.
The House of Representatives handed the rescissions laws with out altering Mr. Trump’s request by 214-212 final month. Four Republicans joined 208 Democrats in voting no.
But after a handful of Republican senators balked on the extent of the cuts to international well being applications, Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, mentioned on Tuesday that PEPFAR, a worldwide program to struggle HIV/AIDS launched in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush, was being exempted.
The change introduced the scale of the bundle of cuts to $9 billion from $9.4 billion, requiring one other House vote earlier than the measure will be despatched to the White House for Trump to signal into legislation.
The rescissions should cross by Friday. Otherwise, the request would expire and the White House will probably be required to stick to spending plans handed by Congress.
Republican ‘No’ Votes
Two of the Senate’s 53 Republicans – Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine – joined Democrats in voting towards the laws.
“You don’t need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” Ms. Murkowski mentioned in a Senate speech.
She mentioned the Trump administration additionally had not offered assurances that battles towards illnesses equivalent to malaria and polio worldwide could be maintained. Most of all, Murkowski mentioned, Congress should assert its function in deciding how federal funds had been spent.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota known as Mr. Trump’s request a “small, but important step toward fiscal sanity.”
Democrats scoffed at that, noting that congressional Republicans earlier this month handed a large bundle of tax and spending cuts that nonpartisan analysts estimated would add greater than $3 trillion to the nation’s $36.2 trillion debt.
Democrats charged Republicans with giving up Congress’ Constitutionally-mandated management of federal spending.
“Today, Senate Republicans turn this chamber into a subservient rubber stamp for the executive, at the behest of Donald Trump,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York mentioned.
“Republicans embrace the credo of cut, cut, cut now, and ask questions later,” Mr. Schumer mentioned.
The cuts would overturn bipartisan spending agreements most lately handed in a full-year stopgap funding invoice in March. Democrats warn a partisan lower now may make it harder to barter authorities funding payments that should cross with bipartisan settlement by September 30 to keep away from a shutdown.
Appropriations payments require 60 votes to maneuver forward in the Senate, however the rescissions bundle wants simply 51, which means Republicans can cross it with out Democratic assist.
