Can the Senate muster enough votes to cut less than 1 percent of non-defense discretionary spending?
Senate Republicans are preparing to consider a package of spending rescissions, requested by the Trump administration, worth $9.4 billion. As passed by the House in June, the bill would cut spending that was previously appropriated by Congress for various foreign aid programs and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR. Under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, such rescissions bills are not subject to the Senate filibuster, so Republicans would need only 50 votes to pass the cuts into law.
To help move the process along, in his typical imperious style, President Trump has threatened to withhold his endorsement from any Republican senator who does not vote for the rescissions. He is especially interested in cutting $1.1 billion from public broadcasting, posting that it “is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together.” Yes, he did misspell “rescissions.”
A cut of $9.4 billion would amount to slightly less than 1 percent of the federal government’s non-defense discretionary spending, which Congress must allocate each year. Or, just over 0.13 percent of total federal outlays, including mandatory spending and interest payments. Yet the cuts still face resistance from several Republican senators.
Some members, including Appropriations chair Susan Collins (R., Maine), want to amend the bill to protect certain foreign aid programs. Collins said Tuesday, “I have already made clear I don’t support the cuts to PEPFAR and child and maternal health.” Others, such as Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), Mike Rounds (R., South Dakota), and Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska), hope to include carveouts for broadcasters in their states, such as public radio stations that serve Native American reservations and rural Alaskans.
Republican leadership also needs to manage the anger of Senate Democrats, with whom they are currently crafting appropriations bills to fund the government in 2026. At least seven Democratic senators will need to vote for the appropriations bills to overcome the filibuster. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., New York) warned this week that Republicans passing a rescissions passage further would “poison” those negotiations. “Republicans’ passage of this purely partisan proposal would be an affront to the bipartisan appropriations process,” he said. Oh, and Democrats are already pretty furious about the “big, beautiful bill.”
Perhaps Trump’s explicit loyalty test will be enough to get rescissions through the Senate. If they pass, the cuts won’t have much of an impact on overall spending or deficits, but every little bit helps. Defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is, as National Review has editorialized, “long overdue.” And America’s freewheeling foreign aid apparatus could use a good trimming. The difficulty of passing these nicks to the federal budget, however, bodes poorly for Republicans’ chances to get anything more consequential out of Congress for the remainder of Trump’s term. Don’t get too excited about that second reconciliation package.