Two weeks after passing President Donald Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill, Senate Republicans say that they have the votes to pass a hugr slate of spending cuts. This would be another massive victory for the Trump administration, one that could cement his legacy.
“Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), told reporters Tuesday that the so-called rescissions package now has enough votes to pass the Senate after he and the Senate GOP leaders agreed to an amendment to remove cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the global initiative launched by President George W. Bush in 2003 to combat AIDS,” reports The Hill.
“Vought, the administration’s chief budget watchdog, also worked out a side deal with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) to redirect money in the Interior Department to help approximately 28 radio stations across 14 states that broadcast onto tribal lands who are at risk of being hurt by $1.1 billion in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” the report continues.
With the slim margins the GOP has, Republicans could only afford to lose three votes and still pass this bill. Having Rounds come around on the bill was a big win.
The changes to the bill lower the amount of the recissions by a little. The package now stands at $9 billion in cuts as opposed to $9.4 billion before the revisions.
More from The Hill:
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) hailed the bill as a key piece of Trump’s legislative agenda and an important “down payment” on reducing the size of the federal government.
“What we’re talking about here is one-tenth of 1 percent of all federal spending,” he told reporters after Senate Republicans met with Vought on Tuesday, promising that Senate GOP colleagues would have a chance to offer amendments to the package.
“This is something that all of us believe is a priority. When you have $36 trillion dollar debt, we have to do something to get spending under control,” he said. “We can start to get this thing back into balance.”
This announcement comes after members of the Senate Appropriations Committee threatened revolt over the bill. Unshockingly, wobbly Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), both committee members, had their doubts about the package of spending cuts. Another issue among committee members was what they perceived as the administration’s slow response to questions.
“We’d like to see the appropriations process be the place that determines what we spend and what we don’t spend,” one GOP senator told The Hill on background. The senator added that “appropriators are accustomed to having line-by-line numbers that reflect an account,” which the administration wasn’t providing.
President Trump is leaning heavily on Republican senators to back the package, and even some of the GOP senators who have doubts about it to stand behind it. Trump even said that he would refuse to endorse any senator who voted against defunding public broadcasting.
“Senate Republicans expect the $9 billion rescissions package to pass, but a big question looming over the debate is whether voting to approve the legislation will encourage the White House to send additional proposals to claw back funds that Congress has already appropriated,” The Hill reports.
This is a developing situation, and we’ll have more info as it becomes available.
This could be a turning point in Washington: the Senate GOP says it has the votes to pass President Trump’s aggressive spending cuts. This isn’t just another headline — it’s a potential seismic shift in how your tax dollars are spent and how the Biden administration is challenged heading into 2026.
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