White House to ask Congress to cut $9B in funds, including for NPR, PBS, USAID
The White House is preparing a rescission package that will seek to have Congress claw back more than $9 billion in approved funding through cuts to public broadcasting, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and agencies President Trump has sought to eliminate.
A White House official confirmed to The Hill that the package will be sent to Congress when lawmakers return from Easter recess on April 28. The package requests to eliminate $9.3 billion in spending, the official said.
That includes money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees PBS and NPR, money for USAID and agencies like the U.S. Institute of Peace, which Trump aimed to dismantle via an executive order signed in February.
The New York Post, which first reported on the planned request, noted the request covered roughly $1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and more than $8 billion for USAID and other State Department efforts.
The request cites various aspects of funding used by those organizations that do not align with the Trump administration's priorities. It cites a PBS program from 2022 titled 'Our League' about a transgender woman who comes out to members of their bowling league in Ohio.
The request also notes that NPR CEO Katherine Maher described Trump as a 'fascist' in old social media posts. Maher has apologized for those remarks.
Representatives for NPR and PBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The rescission package also cites numerous examples of funding from the State Department and USAID to be cut that are not in line with Trump's agenda. Among those are $500,000 for electric buses in Rwanda, $750,000 for reducing xenophobia in Venezuela, and $3 million for a children's developmental television program in Iraq.
Simple majorities in both the House and Senate would need to vote to approve the rescission package in order to eliminate the congressionally approved funding. Republicans control both chambers, though their margin in the House is especially narrow.
Trump and his allies have for months targeted funding for public broadcast stations like NPR, which some Republicans have criticized as too liberal with news coverage. Leaders of both NPR and PBS appeared at a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing in March to defend their practices.
The president has also aggressively pushed to dismantle USAID, claiming it is run by 'radical lunatics.' The agency sends aid to communities impacted by conflicts, helps with disease prevention efforts and assists developing countries. Advocates argue it is critical for the U.S. in establishing influence around the world, while critics assert it is a poor use of government funds.
Efforts to gut USAID have run into various court orders.
Updated at 4:44 p.m.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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