Three Republican senators break with Trump to vote against codifying DOGE spending cuts
Despite some GOP reservations, Senators voted Tuesday to advance President Donald Trump's proposal to claw back $9.4 billion in foreign aid and pull back spending for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees NPR and PBS.
Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky defied party lines to vote with Democrats, resulting in a 50–50 deadlock in the upper chamber.
Vance broke the tie to advance the rescissions package out of the Senate Appropriations Committee, clearing the way for full Senate debate set to begin Wednesday morning.
A marathon voting session on amendments is expected to begin in the afternoon, followed by a final vote. If that succeeds, the legislation would need to return to the House before Friday's deadline to dodge a Democratic filibuster.
Murkowski, McConnell, and Collins, the Republican chair of the committee, faced a wave of MAGA backlash, with their loyalty to the Republican Party called into question.
'Three Republicans opposed the bill, all women: Sens Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Mitch McConnell,' tweeted right-wing media pundit Ann Coulter.
'With each vote he casts, Mitch McConnell cements himself as one of the WORST Senators in American history!!,' former North Carolina Representative Madison Cawthorn chimed in.
'Time to demand that Senator Thune remove Susan Collins from all committees,' another X user said. 'She is not a Republican. She should not be chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee.'
The bill is a top priority for the Trump administration, which, if it passes, reportedly plans to use the same process to enact greater cuts in the future.
Last week, Trump gave Senators an ultimatum: vote to defund NPR and PBS, or he will withhold his support for their reelection.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune was among GOP lawmakers who balked at the DOGE cuts, leading him to strip some of them from the bill Tuesday to secure votes.
It included Senate Republicans stating they would remove $400 million in cuts to the HIV/AIDS relief program, known as PEPFAR, from the package.
Those changes, however, were not enough for Collins, McConnell, and Murkowski.
After her no-vote, Collins slammed the Office of Management and Budget's rescissions package and claimed that the proposed reductions are unclear.
'The rescissions package has a big problem – nobody really knows what program reductions are in it,' she said in a statement late Tuesday.
'The sparse text that was sent to Congress included very little detail and does not give an accounting of the specific program cuts that would total $9.4 billion.'
McConnell said he didn't have any problem with reducing spending but agreed with Collins that the White House failed to provide enough details to lawmakers.
'They would like a blank check is what they would like,' he said. 'And I don't think that's appropriate.'
Meanwhile, Murkowski expressed disdain over numerous rounds of rescissions in the Senate.
'We are lawmakers. We should be legislating,' she said. 'What we're getting now is a direction from the White House and being told: 'This is the priority and we want you to execute on it.
'We'll be back with you with another round.' I don't accept that.'
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