Vice President JD Vance cast the two tie-breaking votes which will help the Trump administration forge ahead with its plan to slash over $9 billion from public broadcasters PBS and NPR and international aid agency USAID.
On Tuesday, the Senate was deadlocked at 50-50 at the start of debate on two procedural hurdles, with Republicans Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins joining Democrats to oppose the fund-slashing bill.
Vance’s two votes got the controversial bill over the line. The package, already approved by the House of Representatives, plans to cut $8.3 billion from USAID, and $1.1 billion which was allocated to NPR and PBS.
The next hurdle for the bill will be further debate in the Senate, then the legislation would return to the House. Congress must approve the Trump-ordered budget cuts by Friday at midnight.
The three rogue Republicans defied Donald Trump’s demands, broadcast on Truth Social last week.
He posted, “It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together. Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Trump deliberately misspelled MSNBC to include the acronym for the Democratic National Committee. The post also misspelled rescissions.
Missouri Republican Senator Eric Schmitt, who is the bill’s lead sponsor, said ahead of the vote, “While the actual American people are working long hours to afford groceries and gas, their government has been writing checks to left-wing propaganda outlets and spending billions overseas on countries that hate us.”
NPR CEO Katherine Maher said the cuts would not only lead to job losses, but could impact public safety.
In a statement, she said, “Rescission would irreparably harm communities across America who count on public media for 24/7 news, music, cultural and educational programming, and emergency alerting services.”
She added, “This rescission proposal is the most serious threat ever faced by public broadcasting... Nothing will take its place. We urge Congress to act in the interest of their constituents and save public broadcasting.”
