Reed Works to Block House-Passed Rescissions Package That Would Claw Back $9.4 billion for Humanitarian Aid, NPR, PBS
Key Appropriations Committee hearing on rescissions package with head of OMB set for June 25
WASHINGTON, DC – After the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed the Trump Administration’s rescissions package to claw back $9.4 billion in previously enacted federal funding from humanitarian aid, international development, public health, NPR, and PBS last week, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) is working in the U.S. Senate to try to halt these shortsighted cuts. But Senator Reed says it will be a difficult path because rescission bills only require a simple majority and Senate Republicans currently have a 53-47 majority.
Last Thursday, the House voted 214 to 212 to claw back the funds, with all but four House Republicans supporting the measure and all Democrats opposing. Six Republicans initially opposed the package, endangering the bill’s passage since all Democrats present voted against it. However, two Republican holdouts were pressured into flipping their votes at the last minute.
The rescissions package eliminates all federal support -- $1.1 billion -- for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the next two years, targeting PBS, NPR, and small, local public radio and TV stations nationwide, threatening children’s educational programming, and jeopardizing emergency alert coverage. The bill also seeks to cut $8.3 billion from international development, global democracy, and humanitarian programs which support America’s national security, promote global peace, and prevent global health crises from reaching our shores, including funds for peacekeeping and refugee assistance; the Democracy Fund; USAID global health programs; UNICEF; the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); and the UN Women and Child Fund.
The package has been referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Senator Reed, a leading Democrat on the committee, stated:
“These shortsighted cuts undermine U.S. national security and global leadership. The soft power we project through lifesaving humanitarian aid, international peacekeeping, and public health funds makes America safer and helps us effectively counter adversaries and advance U.S. interests without having to engage militarily.
“Meanwhile, the cuts to PBS and NPR undermine efforts to ensure that all Americans have access to unbiased news, educational programs, and diverse broadcasts that are not available through commercial media.
“At a time when President Trump is raising prices on consumers with his costly tariffs and ripping away health care from millions of Americans to fund bigger tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, this rescissions package will do nothing to help average Americans, but it will make our country less secure and less connected.
“In the Senate, it takes 60 votes to pass appropriations bills. By definition, these bills are the product of bipartisan compromise and address the broad interests of the American people. If Senate Republicans ram this recissions package through on a partisan basis, they will undermine this process and surrender to this administration’s desire for them to simply be a rubberstamp.
“I will continue working on a bipartisan basis to oppose these reckless cuts and I am hopeful we can build bipartisan consensus on a better way forward that puts American interests first.”
Congress has the power to rescind funds that the federal government has not yet spent, and it routinely does so, on a bipartisan basis, during the regular appropriations process so these resources can be wisely reallocated. The president may also formally recommend cuts (rescissions), which Congress, if it chooses to, can consider on an expedited basis with only a simple majority required to adopt them. In order to make cuts under this process, Congress must act within 45 days of receiving the president’s formal recommendations. Congress has the option not to act on the president’s request. The president may also send more than one package of proposed rescissions, and this administration has vowed to do so if this first package passes.
The White House’s official transmission of the rescission package on June 3 started a 45 day clock for Congress to act.
While the Senate Appropriations Committee has the opportunity to review and alter the President’s rescission proposal, any Senator may seek to bring all or part of the proposal to the Senate floor 25 days after referral to the Appropriations Committee.