House GOP urges Senate Republicans not to change DOGE cuts bill

The Hill

5 days ago

House Republicans are urging their Senate GOP colleagues not to make any changes to the bill to claw back billions of dollars in federal funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, as the party races a Friday deadline to send the package to President Trump's desk.
The warnings come as the Senate is preparing to consider the $9.4 billion measure, known as a rescissions package, which would revoke dollars for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which funds NPR and PBS, two organizations Republicans have deemed biased — and cut funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) went after early on.
But moderate GOP senators have taken issue with some of the cuts, not only to public broadcasters who serve rural communities, but to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — leading to calls to strike some of the White House's requested cuts.
If the Senate changes the bill, which it is signaling it will do, the measure would have to return to the House for a final stamp of approval before receiving Trump's signature — a ping-pong process that must take place in the next three days, or else the Trump administration will be forced to release the funds as originally appropriated.
'The Friday deadline looms. We're encouraging our Senate partners over there to get the job done and to pass it as-is,' Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a Tuesday press conference, calling defunding public broadcasters and USAID 'low-hanging fruit.'
'I've urged them, as they always do, to please keep the product unamended, because we have a narrow margin, and we've got to pass it,' Johnson said. 'But we're going to process whatever they send us, whenever they send us, and I'm hopeful that it will be soon.'
Asked about what happens if the House can't meet that Friday deadline, Johnson said: 'I don't accept defeat, so we'll see what happens.'
Rank-and-file Republicans are making the same plea.
'I think all of us in the House would love to see them pass what we did,' Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) said. 'It's an easy list. I don't understand the opposition.'
But some of the House Republicans airing those warnings — many of them hardline conservatives — are also signaling that they will support the final product regardless of the changes made by the Senate, underscoring the pressure GOP lawmakers are under to approve one of Trump's top priorities and dulling the impact of the House members' requests.
The president last week threatened to withhold support from any members who vote against the package, writing on Truth Social: 'It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill.'
Asked on Tuesday if Senate changes to the package would make his support questionable, Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, responded: 'Oh no.'
'We're gonna get something and we're going to make the start of the rescissions package,' he continued. 'There is another one coming. So yeah, I want the Senate to do their job and cut all the waste, fraud and abuse that's identified in this package, but it's the first of several.'
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) echoed that sentiment, predicting that the Senate will change the bill 'whether they should or not,' but concluding: 'I'm not worried about it being overly controversial.'
Not all Republicans, however, say they are not willing to give the Senate a pass — at least for now. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said his vote for the package is questionable if the upper chamber makes changes.
'We kind of have an agreed-upon thing and I think we should stick together about what our goals and ambitions are and if we don't, they roll us, they'll roll us again,' he said.
If they took out the PEPFAR or public broadcasting provisions, Burchett added, 'that would be bad.'
If past is prologue, however, the Republicans urging the Senate not to change the bill — and warning that their support hinges on whether they follow those directions — will likely fall in line at the president's urging.
Earlier this month, for example, a number of House Republicans were up in arms over changes the Senate made to the party's 'big, beautiful bill,' but all but two eventually fell in line.
'If anyone is thinking about voting no but has ever said that we've got to deal with the waste and the inefficiencies in government, then what's your problem?' Brecheen said.
The House is currently scheduled to leave town on Thursday and be out of session on Friday, but the Senate delay is raising the possibility of the House sticking around to meet the rescissions deadline.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), though, did not directly say whether the House would add voting days to the end of the week.
'Obviously, the Senate's got some work to do on rescissions. I'd like to pass the bill, like the Speaker said, this week, as-is — then it goes straight to the President,' Scalise said. 'If they make any changes, we'll have to evaluate it, but we don't know what those changes would be, and we'll have to take a look and make a determination'
'But we also know there is a clock firmly before we leave at the end of this week that we have to get that bill on the President's desk, and we'll do that,' Scalise said.
GOP leadership has already prepared a procedural mechanism that will allow them to move quickly: Tucked in the rule resolution setting up debate for unrelated cryptocurrency-related bills is a provision waiving the House rule requiring a two-thirds majority to consider the rescissions bill the same day it arrives back from the Senate.