The Republican Senate was poised Wednesday to enact President Trump’s plan for $9 billion in cuts to PBS, NPR and foreign aid that were proposed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie late Tuesday night to send the bill known as recissions to a final vote in the Senate.
Republicans frame the move as a common-sense effort to cut unneeded spending.
“When you’ve got a $36 trillion debt, we have to do something to get spending under control,” said Sen. John Thune, the GOP majority leader.
Democrats counter that tens of millions of Americans, particularly in poor rural areas, rely on local public radio and television stations for news, weather alerts and educational programs.
“These cuts couldn’t come at a worse time,” said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York). “The floods in Texas remind us that speedy alerts and up-to-the-minute forecasts can mean the difference between life and death.”
The bill passed after a last minute flurry of minor tweaks with GOP critics, including leaving out $400 million in planned cuts to the highly successful PEPFAR program that fights AIDS in developing countries.
If the Senate passes the measure as expected, it will head to the House, which narrowly passed a version of it last week.
It needs to clear both houses of Congress and go to Trump’s desk for his signature in time to beat a Friday deadline under the rarely used rule, which was last implemented during Bill Clinton’s presidency.
The bill makes official the cuts that were originally spearheaded by Musk in the first weeks of the Trump administration. He has since bitterly split from Trump and left the administration, but many of his cost-slashing efforts are still moving forward.
Three Republican senators voted against the bill including moderate Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who faces a tough reelection battle next year, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who is retiring.
“We are lawmakers. We should be legislating,” Murkowski said. “What we’re getting now is a direction from the White House and being told: ‘This is the priority and we want you to execute on it.’”
“A blank check is what they would like. And I don’t think that’s appropriate,” added McConnell, a sometime critic of Trump.
Democrats warned they won’t work with Republicans on bipartisan must-pass spending bills if Republicans turn around a few months later and use their majority to cut the parts they don’t like.
