Senate to take up Trump DOGE cuts

Yahoo

a day ago

The GOP's bill to claw back billions of dollars in federal funding is set to hit the Senate floor this week despite serious — and vocal — concerns among some Republicans over the cuts targeting public broadcasting and foreign aid.
Consideration of the legislation comes as GOP lawmakers are staring down a Friday deadline to get the measure, known as a rescissions package, to President Trump's desk. The House approved the bill in a 214-212 vote in June.
Adding to the pressure, Trump last week threatened to withhold his support from any Republican who votes against the legislation, setting the stake for a high-stakes — and potentially ugly — week in the Senate.
Also this week, former Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) — who served a short stint as Trump's national security adviser — is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill for his confirmation hearing to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The event is likely to focus on the March Signal controversy, when Waltz added a journalist to a sensitive text chat regarding plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
On the House floor, lawmakers are set to consider the landmark cryptocurrency bill that the Senate approved last month, in addition to the GOP's bill to fund the Pentagon for fiscal year 2026.
Senate Republicans this week will be focused on the GOP-crafted bill to rescind $9.4 billion in federal funding, which has emerged as a central priority for Trump.
The legislation seeks to claw back dollars for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS — two outlets Republicans have panned as biased, and cut funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which DOGE targeted months ago.
Republicans in both chambers have until Friday to send the legislation to Trump's desk for his signature, a deadline that could be difficult for the party to meet, in part because the Senate is planning to hold a vote-a-rama this week.
Whether the party can ultimately clear the package rests with a handful of GOP holdouts in the Senate, who have voiced concerns with the cuts in the bill and aired worries about the executive usurping power from the legislative branch.
One of the most vocal critics of the bill has been Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who has been particularly concerned about cuts to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which began under former President George W. Bush. She has also questioned some cuts to public broadcasting.
'I want to strike the rescission of funds for PEPFAR, which has an enormous record of success, having saved some 26 million lives over the course of the program, as well as preventing nearly 8 million infants from receiving AIDS from their infected mothers,' Collins previously said. 'So I can't imagine why we would want to terminate that program.'
Republicans can only afford to lose three votes and still muscle the measure through the chamber, assuming full attendance and united Democratic opposition. Democrats have been up in arms over the legislation, warning that any rescissions would hurt future bipartisan government funding talks.
Four House Republicans broke from the party and voted against the legislation last month.
Upping the stakes for Republicans is Trump, who says he will not support any GOP lawmakers who oppose the rescissions package — creating a difficult situation for some senators who have reservations with the bill.
'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 wrote on Truth Social last week.
Waltz is headed for a grilling by Democrats on Tuesday when he appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, which comes nearly four months after he drew criticism for mistakenly adding a journalist to a Signal chat that discussed a planned attack on the Houthis.
Waltz's hearing — scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT — is expected to largely focus on the Signal controversy in March, which thrust the former congressman into the spotlight and sparked reports of his potential ouster.
On March 24, The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed that Waltz, then the national security adviser, added him into a Signal group chat that went on to discuss an imminent attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. The initial story, and subsequent articles, caused a stir in Washington, with Democrats — and even some Republicans — raising alarm about how sensitive information had been handled.
Those concerns are likely to take center stage on Tuesday.
The confirmation hearing comes after a musical chairs of sorts in the Trump administration. Trump nominated Waltz to serve as UN ambassador in May, relieving him of his duties of national security adviser following the Signal controversy.
The UN ambassador post opened up after Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), initially tapped for the post, withdrew her nomination as Republicans worried about their slim majority in the House, returning to leadership in the lower chamber. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has taken on the duties of national security adviser.
The House this week is slated to consider the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act — which lays out a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins — after the Senate approved the landmark legislation last month.
The bill, which has bipartisan support, would create rules for dollar-backed cryptocurrencies, and its enactment would mark a significant moment for the cryptocurrency field.
The Senate passed the measure in a 68-30 vote, with 18 Democrats joining a majority of Republicans, making it the first major crypto bill to make it through the upper chamber. Proponents are hopeful that following the overwhelming bipartisan backing in the Senate, the House could follow suit.
'Our legislation would establish a clear regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, safeguarding digital assets from potential targeting by future administrations, boosting demand for U.S. treasuries, ensuring robust consumer protections, and upholding the U.S. dollar's role as the global reserve currency,' House Majority Leader Steve Scalise's (R-La.) office wrote in a floor lookout Sunday. 'By creating regulatory clarity and supporting the development of U.S. stablecoins with safety rails, the bill helps speed up international payment transactions, increase access to working capital for U.S. companies operating internationally, and promote investment and innovation.'
The House this week is also scheduled to vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which splits the regulation of digital assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The House this week is scheduled to vote on a bill to fund the Pentagon for fiscal year 2026, as Republicans look to pass more of their full-year spending bills ahead of the Sept. 30 government funding deadline.
The legislation includes a discretionary allocation of $831.5 billion which, according to Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee, is the same amount the department received for fiscal year 2025. Additionally, the bill boosts basic pay for all military personnel by 3.8 percent, though it also cuts 45,000 full-time civilian employees.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee advanced the bill in a party-line 36-27 vote last month, sending it to the full floor for consideration.
'The FY26 Defense Appropriations Act provides the resources necessary for maintaining American military superiority, leveraging our technological innovation into tactical advantages on the battlefield, and supporting the Defense Department's most valuable assets – our warfighters,' Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), the chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said in a statement.
Despite a strong likelihood of clearing the chamber, the bill is unlikely to become law since Democrats have staked opposition to it, arguing that the legislation would injure democracy in the U.S. and abroad and hammering away about policy riders included.'
'President Trump's and Secretary Hegseth's complete disregard for the standard procedure for developing the Defense Appropriations Act will have serious consequences for our military readiness,' Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said in a statement.
The Pentagon funding bill is the second full-year spending measure of 12 that the House is voting on ahead of the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline. In June, the chamber approved the legislation funding military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The slow progress is raising the likelihood of a stopgap bill being needed in the fall to stave off a shutdown.
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