Republicans barrel toward risky vote on DOGE cuts

The Hill

2 days ago

House Republicans are facing an uncertain vote Thursday on legislation codifying cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Democrats are all expected to vote against the White House request — known as a recissions package — to claw back north of $9 billion in funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid.
But in a bad sign for the House GOP, a number of Republicans have voiced opposition to the legislation, too — with member particularly upset with cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR.
The vote comes as internal battles over deficits and funding slashes roil the party, and after Elon Musk — the billionaire who hatched the idea for the White House DOGE effort — fell out of favor with President Trump amid his criticism of the separate megabill of Trump's tax cut and spending priorities.
Republicans can afford to lose just three GOP votes on the measure, assuming all Democrats are present and voting against it, and two Republicans told The Hill this week that the opposition hovers around 10 GOP lawmakers.
Republican leaders have championed the cuts of over $1 billion to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which provides grants to PBS and NPR stations across the country — arguing that the government should not be funding media outlets that they say are biased against the GOP.
But skeptics of the clawbacks, including more moderate Republicans and those in rural areas, worry about the practical impacts that could harm the information-sharing infrastructures in their districts.
'A lot of these public television networks are kind of the backbone infrastructure for a lot of rural Western states. So, there's more to it than just Frontline and PBS News Hour or whatever,' one GOP member said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the member said, there did not seem to be much movement in swaying the holdouts.
Earlier this week, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) — an Appropriations subcommittee chair and the co-chair of the Public Broadcasting Caucus — called on the Trump administration to rethink its cuts in the space.
'From coast to coast, Americans rely on public broadcasting for lifesaving emergency alerts, trusted news, and coverage on key issues that connects communities across our nation,' Amodei wrote in a joint statement with Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), a co-chair of the group.
'Our local stations are dedicated to serving their communities, but their ability to continue offering free, high-quality programming would be eliminated if the federal funding is rescinded,' they added. 'Rescinding this funding also would isolate rural communities, jeopardizing their access to vital resources they depend on.'
Additionally, some Republicans have said they are worried about the future of the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which the package cuts. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who has been outspoken in saying the program must be protected, said he would not support the bill if it gutted PEPFAR. Earlier this week, however, he said he was okay with the cuts, but would not reveal whether he will vote for the bull.
'[I] feel better about that,' Bacon said, referring to the clarifications he got on the PEPFAR cuts, 'but I'm going to work with some of my colleagues on the PBS, NPR stuff, and I'll leave it at that for the time being.'
Beyond specific policy qualms, some Republicans have also raised concerns about the White House-driven rescissions package usurping authority from Congress. The legislative branch has the power of the purse, which the claw backs are cutting into.
'I think there's two major concerns: One is that this is top lines and not specifics so it is undermining Congress's authority, and two, there's concerns about some the potential cuts that people have, and that's what we're working through,' a second House Republican told The Hill this week.
The bulk of the recessions package claws back billions in foreign aid programs, including many that were spearheaded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was largely dismantled earlier this year through DOGE projects.
The special rescissions process allows Republicans to approve clawbacks of previously-approved funds identified by the White House with just a simple majority in each chamber of Congress — circumventing the 60-vote threshold in the Senate that requires approval from Democrats to advance regular legislation.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) praised the package of cuts this week.
'It's a critical step in restoring fiscal sanity and beginning to turn the tide to removing fraud, waste, abuse from our government,' Johnson said in a Tuesday press conference.