Latest news with #rescissions package
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Tensions over Epstein files hamper Republican plan to vote on cuts bill
Tensions over the release of documents related to disgrace financier Jeffrey Epstein have complicated House Republicans' plans to hold a vote Thursday on legislation demanded by Donald Trump to slash government spending. The House of Representatives faces a Friday deadline to pass the rescissions package demanded by Trump and approved by the Senate in the wee hours of Thursday morning, otherwise the administration will be obligated to spend about $8bn meant for foreign assistance programs, and $1.1bn budgeted for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS. But before the House can vote on the package, it must be approved by the rules committee. Though the measure is widely expected to have the votes to pass the chamber, the committee on Thursday afternoon had yet to announce a hearing, as Republicans grapple with frustration over Democratic efforts to focus public attention on the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein case. On Monday, Democrats on the rules committee made two attempts to add language to a cryptocurrency bill that would have required the release of documents related to Epstein, who was accused of running a sex-trafficking ring catering to global elites. Republicans voted those down, and a source familiar with their plans told the Guardian that Democrats plan to propose further Epstein-related amendments when the rules committee convenes to consider the rescissions package. 'Either Republicans take a vote to release the files, or they don't,' the rules committee's top Democrat, Jim McGovern, wrote on X. The Epstein case has grown into a crisis for Trump and the GOP ever since the justice department announced last week that, after a review of US government files, it had determined the financier's 2019 death in federal custody was a suicide, and that no list of his clients existed to be made public. Trump's Maga coalition includes believers in a conspiracy theory that the 'deep state' is covering up a global pedophile ring in which Epstein was a major figure, and that files exist to prove it. The president has strenuously denied that his administration is hiding anything, and insulted those who call for the documents' release as 'weaklings' who fell for a 'radical left' hoax intended to discredit him. Democrats, relegated to the minority in both chamber of Congress, have seized on that tension with an array of legislative maneuvers intended to make public any Epstein-related documents. On Tuesday, House speaker Mike Johnson told a conservative podcaster who asked about the case: 'It's a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it.' Meanwhile, Thomas Massie, an iconoclastic Republican congressman who has repeatedly clashed with Trump, is trying to get a majority of the House to sign on to a petition that will force a vote on releasing the files, and has already received signatures from nine GOP lawmakers. The rescissions passage passed the House in June, but the chamber must vote on it again after the Senate declined to cut funding for Pepfar, a program credited with saving millions of people from infection or death from HIV that was created in 2003 under the Republican president George W Bush.
BBC News
17-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
US Senate passes $9bn cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting funds
The US Senate has passed a bill that seeks to cut $9bn (£6.7bn) from funds previously approved for spending by Congress, including cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid. The 51-48 vote happened just before dawn on Thursday, following an hours-long overnight "vote-a-rama", as the Republican-led Senate negotiated bill - a so-called rescissions package that allows Congress to claw back approved funding - is part of a larger effort to reduce federal spending by President Donald Trump. It now returns to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Congress that had previously passed a version of the bill with $9.4bn in proposed cuts. "It's a small but important step toward fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said before the final had previously disagreed over a proposition in the House version of the bill that would have included roughly $400m in cuts to Pepfar, the US-backed HIV/Aids programme. Republicans were able to reach a majority after an amendment was made to keep the funding in the budget. However, dozens of other amendments to maintain international aid spending levels and funding for public broadcasting were rejected. The Senate version of the bill approved on Thursday would still cut roughly $8bn from multiple aid programmes, including global health programmes under USAID, the US's main philanthropic bill would also cut more than $1bn from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, disproportionately impacting radio stations relied upon by rural Lisa Murkowski, from Alaska, was one of two Republicans who joined all Democrats in voting against the bill, in part due to the cuts to public bill will next head to the House for a vote, where its path remains unclear after $400m was reduced from House-proposed spending asked about the changes, House Speaker Mike Johnson said: "We wanted them to pass it unaltered like we did."Both the House and Senate must agree on a version of the rescissions package before it expires on Friday, and Republicans lose their chance to cut the funds.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Tina Smith hospitalized overnight for observation amid rescissions vote-a-rama
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) was hospitalized Wednesday, likely putting Democrats down a vote during the vote-a-rama on the rescissions package that is expected to last into the evening. Smith's staff revealed on social media that the 67-year-old senator felt unwell while at the Capitol earlier Wednesday and subsequently went to George Washington University Hospital for treatment and is expected to be held for observation overnight. 'While at work at the Capitol today, Sen. Smith started to not feel well,' according to the post. 'She went to the Capitol physician who recommended she undergo more thorough examination at GW hospital.' 'Out of an abundance of caution, they are keeping her overnight for observation,' the post continued. 'She expects to be back at work very soon.' Her absence means that Democrats likely will not be at full attendance throughout the vote-a-rama. It also means Vice President Vance is unlikely to be needed to break a tie on the proposal, having been forced to do so Tuesday night on a procedural vote to advance to the vote-a-rama. Smith announced earlier this year she would not run for reelection in 2026. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
