Topline
The House voted to approve the White House’s request to scrap $9 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting early on Friday, sending the matter to President Donald Trump’s desk, after a delay caused by a clash in the narrowly divided chamber over the Epstein files issue.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., hailed the package's passage as a win for "fiscal ... More
The rescissions package, which will claw back the already-approved funding, was passed mostly along party lines with a 216-213 vote, a day after the Senate cleared it.
However, two GOP members, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Mike Turner, R-Ohio, voted against the measure along with all Democrats.
The legislation will now be sent to Trump’s desk, who hailed its passage on Truth Social, saying: “REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED….BUT NO MORE. THIS IS BIG!!!”
The president’s post attacked public broadcast funding, saying the $9 billion cuts include “ATROCIOUS NPR AND PUBLIC BROADCASTING, WHERE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS A YEAR WERE WASTED.”
The rescissions package will allow the Trump administration to claw back $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund public broadcasters like PBS and NPR, and approximately $8 billion from foreign aid programs, including allocations to USAID.
The Senate had passed the package early on Thursday in a 51-48 vote, with two Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, voting against it.
After the bill’s passage, Mike Johnson tweeted: “President Trump and House Republicans promised fiscal responsibility and government efficiency. Today, we’re once again delivering on that promise…The American people will no longer be forced to fund politically biased media and more than $8 billion in outrageous expenses overseas.”
CNN reported that the late-night vote on the rescissions package was undertaken after the GOP House leadership held talks with holdouts who were “demanding a vote on a Jeffrey Epstein-related measure.” The legislation was then held up by a debate on the floor that focused more on the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case rather than the clawbacks. In a bid to address the controversy and defuse tension on the matter, the Republican members on the Rules Committee adopted a nonbinding resolution calling for the “public release of certain documents, records, and communications related to the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein.” The measure calls on the DOJ to provide “documents, records and communications” surrounding the investigation into Epstein and his death within 30 days with limited redactions. It is unclear, however, if the House GOP leadership will be able to muster the necessary votes to pass the resolution.
“A non-binding resolution—or any action that doesn't require the release of the Epstein files—is nothing more than a political smokescreen designed to shield Republicans who refuse to demand full transparency and accountability from the Trump Administration on Epstein,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., wrote on X. GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has been leading a bipartisan legislative push to release details about the Epstein case, also criticized the resolution, tweeting: “Congress thinks you’re stupid. The rules committee passed a NON-BINDING Epstein resolution, hoping folks will accept it as real. It forces the release of NOTHING.”
Trump Directs Bondi To Release Some Epstein Case Documents As He Threatens To Sue WSJ And Murdoch (Forbes)