The White House’s $9.4 billion rescissions package may not have the votes heading into Thursday, as at least four centrist House Republicans have expressed concerns over cementing cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency.

One of the top concerns involves slashing $1.1 billion earmarked for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which runs PBS and NPR. Many Republicans are worried about the impact on local stations in red counties that helped secure a GOP trifecta last November. 

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Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Don Bacon (R-NE), Mark Amodei (R-NV), and David Valadao (R-CA) are among those reported to have issues with the package, which could put leadership in a bind given the razor-thin margins in the House.

Amodei, a top GOP appropriator, wouldn’t say if he’s committed to voting either way, but “there’s not a wind blowing me into the green zone, I can tell you that.”

He said Wednesday he understands Republicans who are upset with the editorial boards of national stations like NPR and PBS, whose leaders were brought before committees to testify on alleged media bias against President Donald Trump. But, he said, that shouldn’t be taken out on the local affiliates.

“I’d like the opportunity to talk with somebody, to go, ‘You want to punish somebody, you want to send a message? Fine. Let’s talk about that.’ These aren’t the people that are doing editorial boards that are flipping you the bird,” Amodei said. 

“They’re kind of important pieces of infrastructure in their communities,” he added.

Amodei noted that many of these local stations depend heavily on national funding.

“It starts at 30[%] and goes to 45%, and they’re not all Western: there’s Michigan, there’s New York,” Amodei said. “But there’s more than you think. And then you do an overlay on the last presidential election. And not that that’s determinative, but it’s like a whole bunch of red counties.”

“It’s easier for the nationals to raise money if they got to make up for some deficit, for some funding, than it is these guys,” the Nevada Republican added.

Bacon also wouldn’t say whether he would vote for or against the package when leaving the GOP’s weekly conference meeting on Tuesday. But he said he has a “great relationship with NPR and PBS in Nebraska” and that he put in a request to speak with leadership “to make sure that we understand it.”

Bacon’s office told the Washington Examiner that there has been no update on whether he was able to secure a meeting with leadership.

Malliotakis said she met with Republican constituents who say they want PBS funding preserved. She would not get into specifics about her concerns nor how she’d vote, but she told reporters Wednesday that she thinks the way the package came to the House “stinks.”

“I think they need to focus on a rescissions package that contains more of the savings and is clear what programs are going to be cut within those accounts,” Malliotakis said, noting that it should be a “law-making exercise.”

“We should send it back and get something good,” she added.

She noted that she believes the bill gives “a lot of discretion to the White House” despite Congress holding the power of the purse, and there’s “a large number of members that do have concerns about that.”

“I don’t wanna be in that situation where give this discretion, these cuts are made, and then we have to go and fight to get the money restored because we didn’t agree with them,” the New York congresswoman said.

The rescissions bill also calls for $8.3 billion in cuts for U.S. Agency for International Development and the African Development Foundation, as well as proposed slashes to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The latter has become another flash point for a handful of House Republicans who say they are not comfortable with severely gutting the AIDS programs that assist millions abroad.

Bacon said he “feels better” about PEPFAR after learning Tuesday that the White House would spare life-saving treatments and prevention programs. He noted that millions of lives are saved through PEPFAR and that the proposed cut is only 8%.

“That’s being protected, the medicine, the healthcare part is being protected, and that’s what most of us care about,” Bacon said. 

Valadao, who also sits on the Appropriations Committee, told PBS he had real concerns about the rescissions package. When asked on Wednesday whether he had concerns or spoke to leadership, he said, “I’m not gonna disclose any conversations I’ve had” with leaders or constituents.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Valadao’s office for additional information on his position.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) can only afford to lose three votes and still pass legislation along party lines, with that number fluctuating based on Democratic attendance. 

If all four centrists vote against the package, it would sink the bill, and Johnson would be forced to go back to the drawing board.  

All four Republicans voted for the procedural rule that encompasses the rescissions package, which is not surprising. Rule votes have been weaponized, usually by the Freedom Caucus and their allies, more recently within the last year, as a way to force leadership to meet demands. 

But the hard-right caucus, typically the House rabble-rousers and thorns in Johnson’s side, are all-in on the rescissions package as vocal supporters of DOGE. 

In a statement Wednesday, the caucus called voting for the package a “no-brainer” and praised the slashing of “waste, fraud, and abuse” — a slogan Republicans have latched onto over the last few months as Democrats accuse them of gutting Medicaid and food stamps to extend the 2017 tax cuts.

“Taxpayers deserve better — and this bill delivers,” the caucus said. “Let’s do our job and stop the reckless spending.” 

Fiscal hawks have been vocal about codifying the cuts proposed by Elon Musk, who has since stepped away from serving in an adviser capacity to Trump. Musk and fiscal conservatives have expressed disappointment that the DOGE cuts weren’t included in reconciliation, but the White House has pointed out that the cuts are to discretionary spending, which cannot be passed through the reconciliation process due to Senate budget rules. 

Instead, the cuts must be codified through either the normal appropriations process or through the passage of a separate rescissions bill.

Not all appropriators are pleased with the idea of the rescissions package and the enthusiasm from the Trump administration to get it pushed through Congress. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), another top GOP appropriator, told reporters Tuesday he thinks it’s a “bad idea” and “undermines Congress’s authority.”

Though Simpson plans to vote for Thursday’s package, he said the president should evaluate bills that come to his desk as a whole. 

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“What I’ve been saying is, if the president doesn’t like a bill, he has to look at it just like we do every appropriation bill — I can find something I don’t like in there,” Simpson said. “He has to look at it and say, ‘Is it good, is it bad’ — in total — and then you have to live with the parts that you might not like.”

“That’s the way it’s supposed to work.”