Senate Hands Trump Another Win As Funding For NPR, Foreign Aid On Chopping Block

The Senate narrowly approved President Donald Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package early Thursday morning after rejecting a series of Democratic measures to protect certain funds from the chopping block and delay its passage.

Senators voted 51 to 48 to send the president’s clawback funding request to the House for consideration. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — a duo that frequently joins together to oppose parts of the president’s agenda — voted “no” on the rescissions package.

No Senate Democrat voted for the rescissions bill, which clawed back $9 billion in previously appropriated funding for foreign aid and a public broadcasting nonprofit that financially supports NPR and PBS. Democratic Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith did not vote after being hospitalized Wednesday due to exhaustion.

Congressional GOP leaders are facing a July 18 deadline to send the rescissions package to the president’s desk. Speaker Mike Johnson will have to pass the clawback funding request in his chamber before Friday or the Trump administration will be forced to spend the $9 billion.

Senate GOP leadership excoriated their Democratic counterparts for opposing the reduction of federal spending, especially funding that Republicans have characterized as ripe for waste, fraud and abuse.

“Millions for the Green New Deal abroad,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said on the Senate floor Thursday. “Not on cent for working Americans here at home. That’s the warped priority of today’s Democrat Party.”

“We should never be funding vegan food in Africa, social media mentorship in Europe or Net Zero Cities in Mexico,” Barrasso continued. “Americans voted for fiscal savings – not foreign slush funds.”

The Senate’s passage of the rescissions bill is a notable accomplishment for Senate Majority Leader John Thune who corralled enough votes to pass the package despite a looming deadline and unease from some GOP senators to cut spending outside of the normal appropriations process. The last successful rescissions bill to pass Congress was in 1999 under former President Bill Clinton.