House Republicans voted on Thursday to claw back billions of dollars in federal funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid, locking in the first set of slashes made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The chamber approved the legislation — known as a rescissions package — in a 214-212 vote, greenlighting $9.4 billion in cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which DOGE went after earlier this year, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funnels dollars to NPR and PBS.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) hailed the package as a large step forward in the GOP’s quest to bringing down the $36 trillion — and growing — deficit.
“Today’s House passage of this initial rescissions package marks a critical step toward a more responsible and transparent government that puts the interests of the American taxpayers first,” Johnson said in a statement after the vote. “It is just one of the ways Republicans are codifying DOGE’s findings and putting taxpayer dollars to better use.”
Despite the emphasis on the legislation, passage was not a sure thing: A handful of Republicans, largely moderates, voiced concerns with the package in the days leading up to the vote, taking issue with cuts to public broadcasting, slashes to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — first established during the George W. Bush administration — and the overall effort undermining Congress’s authority.
But in the end, only four GOP lawmakers joined all Democrats in voting “no,” giving the package enough support to squeak through the chamber.
The bill’s fate in the Senate, however, remains unclear. A cohort of Republicans have aired qualms with some of the provisions in the measure — namely cuts to public broadcasting — prompting questions about whether the package will ever make it to President Trump’s desk for signature.
In accordance with the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the bill is subject to a simple majority in the Senate, meaning Republicans can only afford to lose three of their own and muscle it through the chamber, assuming all Democrats vote no. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said the body is unlikely to turn to the issue until July, after the party finishes its work on its “big, beautiful bill” of tax cuts and spending.
“We’ll do reconciliation first so I would expect that rescissions package probably will be a July timeframe,” Thune said, adding that the Senate “could” tweak parts of the legislation when it comes to their hands.
For now, however, the successful vote marks a win for Johnson, who brought skeptical Republicans on board to pass the bill, and hardline conservatives, who upped the pressure on leadership to codify the DOGE cuts amid their deficit concerns.
And it came at an interesting moment for the Republican Party: Trump and Elon Musk, the brainchild behind DOGE, had a fierce falling out last week, which began with the billionaire criticizing his marquee bill and quickly devolved into personal insults.
The two have since begun showing signs of a potential détente. Musk earlier this week said he had “regret” for some of his social media posts about Trump that “went too far,” and the two spoke by phone, according to multiple reports.
Trump is seeking to clawback $8.3 billion in foreign aid as part of the request, targeting dollars for items like migration and refugee assistance that the administration says support activities that “could be more fairly shared with non-U.S. Government donors,” USAID efforts they say have been used to “fund radical gender and climate projects,” and development assistance they argued “conflict with American values” and “interfere with the sovereignty of other countries,” among other rescissions.
The administration also calls for eliminating funding for the United Nations Children’s Fund, U.N. Development Program and the U.N. Population Fund under the proposal, as well as the World Health Organization and “portions of the U.N. Regular Budget for the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.”
The plan additionally calls for rescinding $535 million in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides some funding to NPR and PBS, in both fiscal 2026 and 2027.
The proposed $1.1 billion clawback for public broadcasting funds has sparked concern from Republicans in both chambers, who have sounded alarm over what the cuts would mean for local stations and those in rural communities.
However, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), a spending cardinal and co-chair of the Public Broadcasting Caucus, has pushed the administration to reconsider the proposed rescissions to public broadcasting programs.
“You ask yourself, well, is it easier for the national people to raise money, or is it easier for the affiliate in Reno or wherever?” Amodei said to reporters this week, while also saying, “Of the total funding that was pre-funded for 26 and 27 we’ve been told 70 percent of that gets passed through to local TV stations.”
Other Republicans, however, have suggested that lawmakers could make further changes to protect local stations after the bill passes if needed, and some have argued that stations could also raise funding from outside sources.
While the special rescissions process has not been frequently used in the last two decades, Trump also tried to use the maneuver to yank back funds in his first term without success, despite Republicans having control of the House and Senate at the time.
Republicans are optimistic history won’t repeat itself as they navigate their first trifecta in years.
“[Trump’s] done this before, and they’ve got a great team, I think, in place,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said last week. “They’ve thought about these things a lot in the time in between His first and his second term.”
“And there’s no question, the President has much more influence inside the Republican Party than he had during his first term,” he added.