Senate Republicans appear to be on track to pass President Donald Trump’s rescissions package after removing funding cuts to an HIV/AIDS relief program started under former President George W. Bush.
Senate Republicans and White House Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought said Tuesday that Republicans will remove a proposed $400 million cut to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) from Trump’s $9.4 billion rescissions package. The fight over the program emerged as a sticking point to Senate GOP leadership’s efforts to quickly steer the clawback funding request through the upper chamber in advance of a July 18 deadline.
Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who frequently breaks with her party, opposed the proposed funding cut to PEPFAR. Though Collins told reporters she was “very pleased” with the decision to preserve the HIV/AIDS relief funding, the Maine Republican said she viewed other parts of the rescissions request as “problematic.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who supported the package as initially drafted, has been adamant about the need to find 51 votes to clear the rescissions package through the upper chamber. Though most legislation requires 60 votes to pass the Senate, rescissions requests are subject to a simple majority threshold.
Vought told reporters Tuesday afternoon that the White House would support a slimmed-down rescissions package. The package would still enact a $1.1 billion cut to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which financially supports both NPR and PBS — and puts nearly $8 billion in foreign aid on the chopping block.
The OMB Director previously defended the merits of the complete rescissions request during an appropriations hearing in June.
“There is a substitute amendment that does not include the PEPFAR rescission and we’re fine with that,” Vought told reporters. “It’s substantially the same package and the Senate has to work its will and we’ve appreciated the work along the way to get to a place where they’ve got the votes.”
Thune also criticized Democrats’ opposition to clawing back just $9 billion in public broadcasting and foreign aid funding. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has claimed the rescissions package will slash “lifesaving services.”
“This bill that is inspiring such hysteria in Democrats would cut just one-tenth of 1 percent — or one one-thousandth — of the federal budget,” Thune said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “My Democrat colleagues may not want to acknowledge it, but we have a serious spending problem in this country.”
The Senate is expected to take up a series of procedural votes kickstarting the passage of the smaller rescissions package as early as Tuesday evening. The House would have to approve the president’s clawback funding request for a second time if the PEPFAR amendment is adopted.
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