Senate Passes $9B in Spending Cuts     07/17 06:07

   The Senate has passed about $9 billion in federal spending cuts requested by 
President Donald Trump, including deep reductions to public broadcasting and 
foreign aid, moving forward on one of the president's top priorities despite 
concerns from several Republican senators.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate has passed about $9 billion in federal 
spending cuts requested by President Donald Trump, including deep reductions to 
public broadcasting and foreign aid, moving forward on one of the president's 
top priorities despite concerns from several Republican senators.

   The legislation, which now moves to the House, would have a tiny impact on 
the nation's rising debt but could have major ramifications for the targeted 
spending, from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to U.S. food aid 
programs abroad.

   It also could complicate efforts to pass additional spending bills this 
year, as Democrats and even some Republicans have argued they are ceding 
congressional spending powers to Trump with little idea of how the White House 
Office of Management and Budget would apply the cuts.

   The 51-48 vote came after 2 a.m. Thursday after Democrats sought to remove 
many of the proposed rescissions during 12 hours of amendment votes. None of 
the Democratic amendments were adopted.

   Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Republicans were using the 
president's rescissions request to target wasteful spending. He said it is a 
"small but important step for fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree 
is long overdue."

   But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said 
the bill "has a big problem -- nobody really knows what program reductions are 
in it."

   Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined Democrats in voting 
against the legislation. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former Republican 
leader, had voted against moving forward with the bill in a Tuesday procedural 
vote, saying he was concerned the Trump White House wanted a "blank check," but 
he ultimately voted for final passage.

   The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending comes after Republicans 
also muscled Trump's big tax and spending cut bill to approval without any 
Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure 
will increase future federal deficits by about $3.3 trillion over the coming 
decade.

   Lawmakers clash over cuts to public radio and TV stations

   Along with Democrats, Collins and Murkowski both expressed concerns about 
the cuts to public broadcasting, saying they could affect important rural 
stations in their states.

   Murkowski said in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday that the stations are 
"not just your news -- it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it 
is your volcano alert."

   Less than a day later, as the Senate debated the bill, a 7.3 magnitude 
earthquake struck off the remote Alaska Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings 
on local public broadcasting stations that advised people to get to higher 
ground.

   The situation is "a reminder that when we hear people rant about how public 
broadcasting is nothing more than this radical, liberal effort to pollute 
people's minds, I think they need to look at what some of the basic services 
are to communities," Murkowski said.

   The legislation would claw back nearly $1.1 billion from the Corporation for 
Public Broadcasting, which represents the full amount it's due to receive 
during the next two budget years.

   The corporation distributes more than 70% of the money to more than 1,500 
locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the 
remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service 
to support national programming.

   Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that 
some funding administered by the Interior Department would be repurposed to 
subsidize Native American public radio stations in about a dozen states.

   But Kate Riley, president and CEO of America's Public Television Stations, a 
network of locally owned and operated stations, said that deal was "at best a 
short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at 
the stations it purports to save, while leaving behind all other stations, 
including many that serve Native populations."

   Slashing billions of dollars from foreign aid

   The legislation would also claw back about $8 billion in foreign aid 
spending.

   Among the cuts are $800 million for a program that provides emergency 
shelter, water and sanitation and family reunification for those who flee their 
own countries and $496 million to provide food, water and health care for 
countries hit by natural disasters and conflicts. There also is a $4.15 billion 
cut for programs that aim to boost economies and democratic institutions in 
developing nations.

   Democrats argued the Trump administration's animus toward foreign aid 
programs would hurt America's standing in the world and create a vacuum for 
China to fill.

   Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said the amount of money it takes to save a 
starving child or prevent the transmission of disease is miniscule, even as the 
investments secure cooperation with the U.S. on other issues. The cuts being 
made to foreign aid programs through Trump's Department of Government 
Efficiency were having life-and-death consequences around the world, he said.

   "People are dying right now, not in spite of us but because of us," Schatz 
said. "We are causing death."

   After objections from several Republicans, GOP leaders took out a $400 
million cut to PEPFAR, a politically popular program to combat HIV/AIDS that is 
credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under then-President 
George W. Bush.

   Looking ahead to future spending fights

   Democrats say the bill upends a legislative process that typically requires 
lawmakers from both parties to work together to fund the nation's priorities. 
Triggered by the official recissions request from the White House, the 
legislation only needs a simple majority vote instead of the 60 votes usually 
required to break a filibuster, meaning Republicans can use their 53-47 
majority to pass it along party lines.

   The Trump administration is promising more rescission packages to come if 
the first effort is successful. But some Republicans who supported the bill 
indicated they might be wary of doing so again.

   "Let's not make a habit of this," said Senate Armed Services Committee 
Chairman Roger Wicker, who voted for the bill but said he was wary that the 
White House wasn't providing enough information on what exactly will be cut. 
Wicker said there are members "who are very concerned, as I am, about this 
process."

   North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis echoed similar concerns and said Republicans 
will need to work with Democrats to keep the government running later in the 
year.

   "The only way to fund the government is to get at least seven Democrats to 
vote with us at the end of September or we could go into a shutdown," Tillis 
said.

   Republicans face a Friday deadline

   Collins attempted to negotiate a last minute change to the package that 
would have reduced the cuts by about $2.5 billion and restored some of the 
public broadcasting and global health dollars, but she abandoned the effort 
after she didn't have enough backing from her Republican colleagues in the 
Senate and the House.

   The House has already shown its support for the president's request with a 
mostly party line 214-212 vote, but since the Senate amended the bill, it will 
have to go back to the House for another vote.

   The bill must be signed into law by midnight Friday for the proposed 
rescissions to kick in. If Congress doesn't act by then, the spending stands.