Latest news with #foreignaid
Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Trump asks Congress to repeal $9 billion from NPR, PBS and global aid
The White House budget office on Tuesday urged Congress to cancel more than $9 billion in funding for global health and public radio and TV stations, as President Donald Trump attempts to assert more control over congressional spending authority. The proposal, sent to lawmakers by White House budget director and key policy architect Russell Vought, asks Congress to 'rescind' or repeal $8.3 billion in foreign aid and more than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which supports NPR and PBS. Among the cuts are resources to combat HIV/AIDS around the world through the U.S. Agency for International Development, fund U.S. contributions to the World Health Organization, support international peacekeeping activities and provide media services to U.S. consumers. Much of the money had already been slashed by the U.S. DOGE Service — until recently headed by billionaire Elon Musk — while the administration has refused to spend the rest. Some lawmakers have said the only way to make those spending cuts permanent is to pass legislation containing them, which is what the White House is now trying to do. 'When you've got a $2 trillion deficit, you're going to have to cut things you'd not only like to cut, you're going to have to cut things you'd prefer not to,' said House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma). Trump has been testing the legal boundaries over the president's involvement in spending legislation since his second term's start. The Constitution gives Congress — not the president — the authority to determine how the federal government is funded. Trump, Vought and DOGE have sought to test that separation of powers by refusing to spend, or impounding, vast sums of congressionally approved funding. The administration has unilaterally blocked more than $425 billion in spending mandated by Congress, according to figures released by Democrats on Congress's appropriations committees. 'These rescissions would eliminate programs that are antithetical to American interests, such as funding the World Health Organization, LGBTQI+ activities, 'equity' programs, radical Green New Deal-type policies, and color revolutions in hostile places around the world,' Vought wrote in a letter recommending the cuts to Trump, 'In addition, federal spending on CPB subsidizes a public media system that is politically biased and is an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.' Tuesday's request encourages the Republican-controlled Congress to endorse Trump's plans to sharply downsize the federal government. Though the scale of the savings would be relatively small, Trump and his allies have singled out many of the targeted agencies and programs for allegedly being wasteful and baselessly accused others of carrying out a partisan, left-wing agenda. Shortly after he took office, Trump halted the flow of funds to USAID, a division of the State Department that administers global health, anti-hunger, disease prevention and economic development programs. But Congress never endorsed those actions, leading to arguments the actions were illegal and some unfavorable court rulings. In recent weeks, Trump has also attempted to block congressionally approved funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, though its affiliated news organizations draw significant funding from private donations. NPR sued to block that executive order, calling it 'textbook retaliation' by the Trump administration over journalistic coverage it finds unfavorable. 'After linking arms with Elon Musk to take a chainsaw to key programs the American people count on, President Trump is now asking Republicans in Congress to rubber-stamp his DOGE cuts and codify them into law," Sen. Patty Murray (Washington), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. 'No way." The measure has the potential to move rapidly through Congress. The House can quickly bring the package to the floor for approval, and in the Senate the legislation does not need to clear the 60-vote threshold to head off a Democratic filibuster. 'These first DOGE cuts target taxpayer-funded public broadcasters notorious for their liberal bias like NPR and PBS, as well as billions in wasteful foreign aid dollars,' the House Freedom Caucus, a band of arch conservative lawmakers, said in a statement. 'Passing this rescissions package will be an important demonstration of Congress's willingness to deliver on DOGE and the Trump agenda.' Cutting foreign aid has been a popular idea for decades, with 60 percent saying the U.S. spends too much on assistance to other countries, according to the 2024 General Social Survey, only once dropping below a majority since 1972. Foreign assistance makes of a minuscule share of federal spending. The federal government obligated $59 billion to global aid in the 2024 fiscal year, or 0.88 percent of the $6.7 trillion in total government spending in the same period. Certain types of aid are more popular: 62 percent opposed freezing food, health and disease prevention services to people in poor countries in an April Post-ABC-Ipsos poll. A March Pew Research Center poll found that more Americans said the federal government should continue to fund NPR and PBS (43 percent) rather than remove federal funding (24 percent), and 33 percent said they were not sure. A larger 44 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents supported ending federal funding for NPR and PBS, while 69 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents opposed cuts. Scott Clement, Emily Guskin and Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.
CBS News
3 hours ago
- Business
- CBS News
White House asks Congress to claw back $9.4 billion in funding for foreign aid, NPR, PBS in rescission package
Elon Musk on DOGE and his work in and out of government Elon Musk on DOGE and his work in and out of government Elon Musk on DOGE and his work in and out of government Washington — The White House on Tuesday sent a formal request to Congress to claw back funding for NPR, PBS and international aid that lawmakers had previously approved. The package would cancel $9.4 billion appropriated by Congress, aiming to make permanent some of the Department of Government Efficiency's spending cuts. It focuses on slashing foreign aid, along with major public broadcasting entities, including NPR and PBS. The $9.4 billion rescissions package includes $1.1 billion in cuts for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to NPR and PBS. In April, the White House released a statement saying taxpayers had funded the two entities "for too long" and said they've "spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news.'" PBS received $325 million in CPB funding this year. The package also requests $8.3 billion in cuts to the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID. The foreign aid agency became a target of the administration, which worked to shutter it earlier this year. And Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought has argued that the foreign aid is not only wasteful, but that USAID has been pushing "weaponized cultural indoctrination" in other countries. Each year, Congress approves funding to keep the federal government running before the funds are disbursed to government agencies and programs. The president can temporarily defer funds or withhold them altogether — but only with Congress' approval. The rescission process allows Congress to cancel funds that the federal government has not yet spent but has previously appropriated. And only discretionary funds can be rescinded, while mandatory spending, like Social Security and Medicare, cannot be. In the Senate, rescission bills are not subject to the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation in the upper chamber. Instead, they only require a simple majority. The White House's Office of Management and Budget's rescission request kickstarts a process that gives Congress 45 days to act. First, the request goes before relevant committees for consideration, before moving to the full House and Senate for votes. Republicans in Congress have been eager to get started on the rescission process, as deficit hawks rail against Washington's spending habits. And House Speaker Mike Johnson has pledged the House will "act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts." "The House is eager and ready to act on DOGE's findings so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand," Johnson said last week in a post on X. But whether Republican leaders can successfully maneuver the package through Congress remains to be seen. While rescission has frequently been used in Congress to reallocate unspent funds, requests from the White House come less frequently. And during the first Trump administration, the Senate rejected a rescission package sent by the White House requesting nearly $15 billion in cuts. Meanwhile, fiscal hawks in Congress have been advocating for rescission to cut down on costs while a major legislative package key to Mr. Trump's agenda makes its way through Congress. That legislation, titled One Big Beautiful Bill, would allocate funding for tax cuts, border security and defense. But the price tag for that package, which at this point could add around $3 trillion to the national debt, dwarfs what lawmakers would get back from the rescission package. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has been a vocal opponent of additional spending and especially a plan to raise the debt ceiling as part of the tax cut legislation, backs the rescission package, calling the funds "the low-hanging fruit." But he, too, noted that the impact on the deficit would be minuscule. "This is very, very small," Paul said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." "It really doesn't materially change the course of the country."
Bloomberg
4 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trump Asks Congress to Slash Funds for NPR, PBS and Foreign Aid
President Donald Trump asked lawmakers to cut more than $9 billion in funding for the Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio and foreign aid from this year's budget, an attempt to write into law some of the so-called 'DOGE cuts' initiated by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. 'Now, Congress must act. They have 45 days to codify these massive cuts to woke, wasteful, and weaponized spending via a simple majority vote,' the White House's Office of Management and Budget said in a post on X on Tuesday.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
Trump demands Congress back DOGE's $9.4 billion cuts to USAID and PBS
The White House plans to ask Congress this week to claw back $9.4 billion in already approved funding to foreign aid and public media outlets, as the administration seeks to make permanent some of the cuts and priorities of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The package includes $8.3 billion in cuts to foreign aid efforts ranging from climate work to LGBT programs, as well as $1.1 billion clawed back from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which partially funds NPR and PBS, an administration official told The Independent. Republican lawmakers have expressed mixed feelings about the clawback package. 'The House is eager and ready to act on DOGE's findings so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand,' House Speaker Mike Johnson said last week on X, promising the cuts would end USAID's 'insane spending.' The proposal, expected to be submitted as early as Tuesday, would have 45 days to pass. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Appropriations Committee, has said she's unsure that'll be enough time. 'It's extremely complex and the rules, because there hasn't been a successful rescission package in many, many years,' she told NBC News. The Independent has contacted PBS and NPR for comment. 'We want to see the rescission order before we comment on it,' a spokesperson for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting told The Independent. The broadcasters have already signaled they'll push back on Trump's wider attempts to defund them, though. PBS and NPR are already suing Trump, after the president signed an executive order in May calling on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease funding the broadcasters. The latter is also suing Trump over an attempt to remove its board members. During its lawsuit, the corporation stated that the administration attempted to assign a DOGE team to the organization. However, the outfit denied the request, arguing that federal law states the organization 'will not be an agency or establishment of the United States Government.' Many of the foreign aid programs on the chopping block are associated with another DOGE target, the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the administration shuttered in March, moving its remaining operations to the wider State Department. The cuts to USAID, part of larger disruptions to U.S. HIV/AIDS-prevention programs, have been linked to thousands of deaths. The rescission plan is separate from the administration's so-called 'Big, Beautiful Bill' of proposed domestic spending, which passed the House last month. The outgoing Musk has criticized that bill for not doing more to reduce government spending. "I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, doesn't decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk told CBS News as he was departing. "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful," he went on. "But I don't know if it could be both. My personal opinion."
Fox News
2 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
NY Times columnist compares Elon Musk to history's worst murderers over USAID cuts
New York Times columnist David Brooks suggested Elon Musk belongs on a list of history's greatest mass murderers, including Pol Pot, Mao and Stalin due to DOGE'S cuts to USAID. "So far, 55,000 adults have died of AIDS in the four months since Trump was elected; 6,000 children are dead because of what DOGE did. That's just PEPFAR, the HIV. You add them all up, that's 300,000 dead, and we're four months in. You add that all up and accumulate that over four years the number of dead grows very high," Brooks said on PBS News Hour Saturday. "There are mass murderers in the world, Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung, Stalin. We don't have anybody on the list from America," Brooks added. The New York Times columnist conceded the so-called deaths that he claims Musk is responsible for are not "the same kind of genocide" perpetrated by the despots he cited, but maintained that Musk's closure of USAID made him partially responsible for mass deaths. The casualty counts Brooks cited were provided by a Boston University digital tracker that monitors deaths that it claims occur from changes in U.S. foreign aid created by Global Health Professor Brooke Nichols. When filtered for USAID cuts, the tracker states that 99,528 adults and 207,680 children have died this year from "funding discontinuation." The communist regime Khmer Rouge killed between 1.5-3 million people between 1975 and 1979 in the Cambodian Genocide when the group plunged the country into mass violence targeting intellectuals and religious minorities following their overthrow of the Cambodian Monarchy and installation of Pol Pot as dictator in 1975. Thirty-eight million people died of starvation during Mao's Great Leap Forward and the ensuing famine it produced. Mao biographers Jung Chang and Jon Halliday estimate that Mao was responsible for over 70 million peacetime deaths. Stalin killed over six million of his own citizens in the gulags, the Great Terror and other actions. Brooks is purpotedly one of the few conservative voices at the New York Times. However, the columnist has espoused liberal views on a host of topics and has praised Biden's presidency. He has also positioned himself as a fierce critic of President Donald Trump. "Trumpism can be seen as a giant attempt to amputate the highest aspirations of the human spirit and to reduce us to our most primitive, atavistic tendencies," Brooks wrote in a recent column. USAID was set up in the early 1960s to act on behalf of the U.S. to deliver aid across the globe, particularly in impoverished and underdeveloped regions. The agency now operates in 60 nations and employs some 10,000 people, two-thirds of whom work overseas — though most of the on-the-ground work is contracted out to third-party organizations funded by USAID, according to a BBC report. The Trump administration, however, has argued that USAID is a corrupt organization that is mishandling U.S. taxpayer dollars. DOGE froze USAID funds and sent much of its staff home shortly after Trump took office. Musk, who was spearheading the DOGE effort to root out "waste, fraud and abuse" in government, has said the agency is beyond repair. The Trump administration announced that it would be cutting 90% of all USAID contracts in April. U2 frontman Bono recently made a similar claim as Brooks on Joe Rogan's podcast, saying 300,000 people have died due to USAID cuts. Musk swiftly shot back on social media, calling the Irish rocker a "liar/idiot" and claiming that there have not been any deaths from USAID cuts. "He's such a liar/idiot Zero people have died!" The Tesla CEO posted. Musk and Brooks did not respond to Fox News Digital's request to comment.
