Vice President JD Vance cast a vote to break the 50–50 tie on the package.
Vice President JD Vance on July 15 cast a tie-breaking vote to advance a package that would rescind $9 billion in funding for the federal government, a trimmed-down version of President Donald Trump’s $9.4 billion rescissions request.
Lawmakers advanced the bill past a key procedural hurdle in a 51–50 vote. Three Republicans, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voted against advancing the legislation. The vote was held open for nearly half an hour after Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-Pa.) “Yes” vote brought the legislation to 50–50 before Vance arrived.
It’s a big win for Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) after weeks of negotiation and infighting over the rescissions package, which is utilizing the process laid out in the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
This single package, to cut $9 billion in federal spending, is one of the biggest rescissions packages ever approved under the process. It would codify several cuts identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), including cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and foreign aid.
Historically, such bills have managed to pass the House but floundered in the Senate. The House passed $9.4 billion in spending cuts on June 12.
The Impoundment Control Act gives Congress 45 days to approve spending cuts requested by the president. The passing of the procedural vote comes just three days before the final deadline of July 18. If Congress doesn’t approve the cuts by then, Trump won’t be able to resubmit the same items for rescission in future bills.
USAID and PEPFAR
The spending cuts largely rescind funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with around $7.9 billion in cuts to the agency. That’s $400 million less than the cuts approved by the House, after the Senate removed cuts to the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program.
PEPFAR, initiated by President George W. Bush with the intention of ending the international HIV/AIDS pandemic by 2030, has been a flashpoint in Republicans’ fight to pass the cuts. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) expressed particular concerns about this portion of the request.
“I’ve made very, very clear what my position is on the rescissions bill, that there are some cuts that I can support, but I’m not going to vote to cut global health programs,” Collins told reporters on July 10.
Thune spoke to reporters about the removal of PEPFAR rescissions on July 15.
“There was a lot of interest among our members in doing something on the PEPFAR issue, and so that’s reflected in the substitute [amendment to change the bill],” Thune said.
McConnell, meanwhile, tied his objections to the impact that foreign aid cuts could have on the United States’ ability to project “soft power,” power using nonmilitary means.
PBS, NPR Cuts
Another key controversy in the bill is its rescission of $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Alongside Collins and Murkowski, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) expressed particular concern about how these cuts could affect local and tribal programming in South Dakota.
Rounds announced Tuesday in a post on X that after negotiations, he would back the bill in the Senate.
“We wanted to make sure tribal broadcast services in South Dakota continued to operate which provide potentially lifesaving emergency alerts,” Rounds said. “We worked with the Trump administration to find Green New Deal money that could be reallocated to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption.”
House Lawmakers Unhappy About Changes
Because the rescission package has been altered, it will need to return to the House to be considered again.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday morning responded to reports that PEPFAR funding could be cut with an exhortation to the Senate not to change the bill.
“The Friday deadline looms. We’re encouraging our Senate partners over there to get the job done and to pass it as is,” Johnson said during a Tuesday leadership press conference.
Lawmakers in the House told The Epoch Times ahead of the vote that they would be unhappy with changes to the bill.
Responding to reports that the Senate would cut PEPFAR funding, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times, “I think the Senate should take up the bill as we wrote it in the House. You know what we’re doing is really just codifying waste, fraud and abuse [cuts] that the DOGE team found.”
Gill added that “large portions” of funding to USAID and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting “are either fraudulent or just deliberately wasteful.”
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) echoed the sentiment.
“We’re aware that under normal circumstances, the Republicans in the Senate are not as fiscally as responsible as the Republicans in the House,“ Grothman told reporters. ”So this is disappointing but not surprising news.”
Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) was also critical.
“I think that most senators, regardless of party, prefer to spend more of the hard earned tax dollars of the American people,” Cline told The Epoch Times.
Thune acknowledged the likely objections to the Senate’s changes but indicated it was necessary to pass it through the Senate.
“We hope that we can get this across the finish line in the Senate, that the House would accept that one small modification that ends up making the package still about a $9 billion rescissions package—a little less than what was sent over from the House, but nonetheless, a significant down payment on getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse in our government.”
Jackson Richman contributed to this report.
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