House Republicans eked out a narrow win Thursday on their $9.4 billion rescission package in a dramatic afternoon vote that for several minutes appeared to be doomed.
The 214-212 vote marked the first real test of the Trump administration’s attempts to codify clawbacks of what it calls wasteful spending. The measure now goes to the Senate, where its fate is less certain. The bill would rescind $1.1 billion in taxpayer support for public broadcasting and $8.3 billion in foreign aid, including $400 million from a popular program to combat HIV/AIDS globally.
The measure reached at least a half-dozen “no” votes among Republicans as votes were being cast before they began flipping to an affirmative vote. Once a razor-thin margin of victory had been achieved, the presiding officer gaveled the vote to a close.
Republicans Nick LaLota of New York and Don Bacon of Nebraska originally cast a “no” vote but switched to vote in favor of the bill. LaLota has been pushing for leadership assurances the Senate won’t reduce the $40,000 cap on state and local tax reductions in the House-passed reconciliation bill.
“I think we should be responsible with how we handle the nation’s money. We do need to cut. Cutting the $9 billion is necessary, also I’m making sure that my constituents get at least $40,000 in SALT relief [that] is also very necessary,” said LaLota, who spoke to reporters after the vote and declined to explicitly state whether he had received a firm commitment from GOP leaders before switching his vote.
Bacon had previously expressed reservations about the funding cuts to public broadcasting and to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a bipartisan program started by the George W. Bush administration to treat and prevent the spread of HIV in Africa.
Four Republicans ultimately voted against the measure: Michael R. Turner of Ohio, Nicole Malliotakis of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mark Amodei of Nevada.
Amodei said in a statement that he voted against the bill because of the cancellation of two years of advanced appropriations for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, which he said would have a significant impact on thousands of his rural constituents who rely on local public broadcasting.
“I’m sure we will be voting on this again before the cake is fully baked,” said Amodei, who co-chairs the bipartisan Public Broadcasting Caucus. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to improve and protect this infrastructure our rural communities rely on.”
Democrats were united in opposing the package, but their efforts were hampered by absences: Reps. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, Donald Norcross of New Jersey, Emily Randall of Washington and Lou Correa of California missed the vote. Republicans Brad Finstad of Minnesota and Laurel Lee of Florida also did not cast votes on the bill’s passage.
During Thursday’s House floor debate, Republicans sought to cast the cuts to foreign aid, including $1.3 billion in humanitarian assistance, as eliminations aimed at programs that don’t merit taxpayer backing, such as support for LGBT communities and combating climate change.
“How about we cut $3 million for circumcisions, vasectomies and condoms in Zambia,” House GOP Conference Secretary Lisa McClain of Michigan said in floor remarks. “How about we spend that money and invest in American health care.”
The Biden administration-era funding that Republicans have highlighted as wasteful include $26,600 for a drag show in Ecuador and $500,000 for electric buses in Rwanda and represent a small portion of the foreign assistance targeted for elimination. The majority of the funding the White House has sought to cut is for broader policy goals, including more than $200 million in support for specialized U.N. agencies and $800 million to help refugees fleeing war and natural disasters.
House Democrats assailed the bill as an assault on needed assistance in developing countries and on the broadcasting of potentially lifesaving information in rural areas where residents are less likely to have access to reliable broadband for weather-related emergencies.
“This is a bill to shut down rural television and radio stations — cutting off coverage of local news, eliminating emergency information like severe weather alerts, and jeopardizing access to PBS KIDS children’s programming like Sesame Street,” House Appropriations ranking Democrat Rosa DeLauro said. “This is a bill to rip lifesaving support away from hungry, displaced and sick people in developing countries and conflict zones across the globe, and to end programs that treat deadly diseases and prevent pandemics. This is a bill to abandon the people of Ukraine while they resist [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s tyranny.”
The top Democrats on the congressional foreign affairs authorization committees and appropriations subcommittees released a joint statement Thursday condemning the House vote.
“The draconian DOGE cuts that President Trump and Elon Musk have put in place have been justified through misleading claims that ignore the harm to America and the global death toll that have resulted from their actions,” reads the statement from Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Senate State-Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz of Hawaii, House Foreign Affairs ranking member Gregory W. Meeks of New York, and House Appropriations foreign aid subcommittee ranking member Lois Frankel of Florida.
Additional rescission packages are likely to be sent over by the White House, particularly if the House-passed bill clears the Senate in the next few weeks. But vote margins in that chamber are similarly tight: GOP Senate leaders can afford to lose three Republican votes and still pass the bill.
“We’re fighting a multifront war against the deficit,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday as the House was preparing to consider the bill. “This is a multistep process.”
Aidan Quigley and David Lerman contributed to this report.
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