WASHINGTON — The Senate approved the Trump administration’s first round of requested spending cuts after an overnight voting session, approving the clawback of billions of dollars in federal funding including substantial cuts to public broadcasting.
The bill passed in a 51-48 vote, approving roughly $9 billion in spending cuts for programs already approved by Congress but targeted by the Trump administration as being wasteful or anti-conservative. The spending measure passed after an hourslong voting series as Democrats introduced dozens of amendments in a process known as a vote-a-rama.
Two Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against the measure: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Both Utah Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis voted in favor of the bill.
Despite a last-minute effort to remove language halting federal funding from going toward the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, that effort failed in a 47-51 vote on the Senate floor. Collins and Murkowski co-introduced the last-minute amendment to remove the provision, but that effort was shot down by their fellow Republicans who accuse stations such as PBS or NPR of promoting anti-conservative bias.
As a result, roughly $1 billion in federal funds will be withheld from the CPB for the next two fiscal years.
“NPR and PBS are not neutral media outlets,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. “They are the closest thing we’ve ever had in this country to Pravda. They are the arms of the left-wing activist class. Why are Americans being forced to subsidize institutions that hate them?”
Both PBS and NPR are partially funded through the CPB, which was authorized by Congress in 1967. Less than 1% of NPR’s total funding comes from the federal government, but some local and rural stations rely on those funds for emergency alert systems and other educational purposes.
“There has been probably no issue, no single issue that has drawn out more interest across the state of Alaska than support for public broadcasting,” Murkowski said. “I come from a state where access to other forms of information and communication may be limited. It may just come by way of your radio.”
But President Donald Trump and other Republicans, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, have repeatedly pushed to strip that federal funding, accusing the stations of using taxpayer dollars to amplify misinformation about conservatives.
“I completely disagree with those who want to take (the spending cuts) out,” Lee told the Deseret News last week. “I know this is important to the president, and I think it’s important to a lot of voters.”
PEPFAR funds restored
However, a group of Republicans did manage to remove one of the most controversial provisions in the original bill that would cut roughly $400 million from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, a program started under the George W. Bush administration that focuses on global HIV prevention, care and treatment.
Cuts to that program caused alarm for several Senate Republicans, including Curtis, who argued the program has saved millions of lives and has been a successful global operation. The White House agreed to remove the proposed cuts from the final package, telling reporters on Tuesday they are “fine with adjustments.”
“This is still a great package,” Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said after meeting with GOP senators. “The Senate has to work its will, and we’ve appreciated the work along the way to get to a place where they think they’ve got the votes.”
Still, the package contains billions of dollars in cuts to other foreign aid and humanitarian projects, particularly in relation to the United Nations, which some Republicans have accused of being rife with fraud and abuse.
But with the removed provisions, it has left some fiscal conservatives in the House upset with their Senate colleagues that the changes bring the total spending cuts lower than the $9.4 billion originally requested.
A group of 15 fiscal conservatives in the House sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Tuesday warning that “weakening” the cuts would “undermine both his leadership and the discipline our budget urgently demands.” Instead, the group urged the Senate to pass the rescissions package as-is.
“This is just a test case that the White House wants to see if we’ve got stomachs, if we’ve got guts, if we’ve got muscles for what we’re willing to pass,” Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., who signed on to the letter, told the Deseret News. “And if we can’t hit this softball that’s being pitched right over home plate, we can’t knock this out of the park, then I’m very concerned for what we as Republicans really are willing to do.”
But those demands may not be feasible as lawmakers are right up against the Friday deadline, the day on which the bill must be passed and signed by Trump otherwise all halted funding must be continued.