The U.S. House of Representatives approved a rescissions package to slash $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funding, sending the bill to President Donald Trump's desk.

Washington

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a package to rescind $9 billion in funding previously allocated for foreign aid and public broadcasting, including NPR and PBS. The bill was passed before a deadline that would have otherwise released the funds as originally intended. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed confidence in the support for the measure, which saw only two Republican representatives break party lines. The bill excludes the PEPFAR program, a global AIDS initiative, after concerns from some lawmakers. The legislation now moves to President Donald Trump, who has publicly supported the cuts.

U.S. House passes $9 billion cut to foreign aid, public broadcasting

All right, House lawmakers approved a package to take back $9 billion previously allocated for foreign aid and public broadcast funding, including NPR and PBS. This measure passed just after midnight, well before the end of day deadline, after which the money would have been spent as originally intended. This was directed to wasteful spending in the previous State Department, of course, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and a couple of other areas. We looked at that, we thought it was a waste of taxpayer funds and we're taking care of business. At this moment, the bill is on its way to the President's desk to be signed into law. CBS News Congressional Reporter, Torian Small, joins us from Capitol Hill with more on this. Good morning, Torian. What reaction have you seen to this finally being approved this morning? Yeah, good morning, Errol. We saw immediately after the passage of this package, House Speaker Mike Johnson pretty much echoing the same confidence he had going into this vote, saying that he believes he has the membership in lockstep with the President to get this across the finish line. They were staring down a Friday deadline, which is why they wanted to act quickly and moving this to the President's desk. He and the leadership team were quick to assuage any concerns from the House Freedom Caucus about a measure that was taken out of the bill, which was PEPFAR, a George W. Bush-era global program that targeted fighting AIDS around the world. Some members of House Freedom Caucus said that we should focus on spending domestically, but ultimately we saw just two defectors when it came to this bill, Ohio Representative Mike Turner and Brian Fitzpatrick. They ultimately were the only two to break the party line to get this to the President's desk, and the President himself today on Truth Social celebrating this, saying that this huge hurdle of getting $9 billion in cuts has passed, and he called, as you can see on screen there, NPR Public Broadcasting, funding to the public corporation atrocious, and again, affirming the decision by Republicans to move forward with these cuts and send it to his desk. All right, Torian, we appreciate the update, thank you.

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Los Angeles

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Moscow

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Jerusalem

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Tennessee

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Senate approves spending cuts to foreign aid, public broadcasting

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Damascus

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Encino

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Hollywood

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Breakdown