'Long overdue': Senate Republicans ram through Trump's clawback package with cuts to foreign aid, NPR

Fox News ^ | 7/17/25 | Alex Miller

[Libloather]

Senate Republicans blasted through Democratic and internal opposition to pass President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar clawback package early Thursday morning.

The final vote tally was 51-48, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining every Democrat in voting against it. The package will now be sent to the House, which has until Friday to pass it.

The $9 billion rescissions bill tees up cuts to "woke" spending on foreign aid programs and NPR and PBS that Congress previously approved. Republicans have pitched the bill as building on their quest to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that it was a mission shared by the GOP and Trump, whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified many of the cuts included in the package.

"I appreciate all the work the administration has done in identifying wasteful spending," Thune said. "And now it’s time for the Senate to do its part to cut some of that waste out of the budget. It’s a small but important step toward fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue."

The president’s rescissions package proposed cutting just shy of $8 billion from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the government-backed funding arm for NPR and PBS.

It’s likely the first of many to come from the White House.

Unlike the previous procedural votes, Vice President JD Vance was not needed to break a tie. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted against the preceding procedural votes to advance the package on Tuesday night, but ultimately backed the bill.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; History; Local News
KEYWORDS: alaska; budget; clawback; collins; democrats; lisamurkowski; maine; murkowski; npr; pbs; republicans; senate; susancollins

[1Old Pro]

Sheesh, bout time.

[1Old Pro]

Don’t worry...NPR and PBS is alive and well...and will continue to be funded “privately”. The big boys will just have to revise their “control” list.

Good, this should not be tax payer funded, like a million other things.

[SharpRightTurn]

“Now, do it again!”

And keep doing it until the budget is balanced!

[FLT-bird]

Outstanding. Now defund PBS and NPR entirely.

[Socon-Econ]

Let the virtue signaling begin — with private contributions to fund NPR.

[The Great RJ]

I have wondered just who is the actual audience for PBS/NPR? I would imagine it is primarily liberal white women who listen to NPR while driving their Prius to Whole Foods or watch Downton Abbey while sipping cheap Chardonnay from Trader Joe’s.