Latest news with #HouseSpeakerMikeJohnson
E&E News
2 days ago
- Politics
- E&E News
Conservationists sound alarm over spending bill's impact on Utah monument
Nearly 900,000 acres of public lands in Utah could be left in an administrative limbo unless House lawmakers strike language from the annual Interior Department appropriations bill, conservationists say. More than 60 organizations — including the Conservation Lands Foundation, Grand Canyon Trust, Grand Staircase Escalante Partners, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance — signed onto a Monday letter asking House leaders to remove a provision targeting the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument from the fiscal 2026 spending bill. 'Among the most beloved of the National Conservation Lands, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah is the first and largest national monument entrusted to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to conserve, restore, and protect,' the groups wrote in the letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). Advertisement The current spending bill would direct BLM to follow a 2020 Trump administration land-use plan for the monument in southwestern Utah.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The House is poised to OK Trump's $9 billion cut to public broadcasting and foreign aid
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is expected late Thursday to approve President Donald Trump's request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid as Republicans target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda. The White House had described the package as a test case and said that if Congress went along, more would come. The House's approval would mark the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and even then the results were more mixed. Unlike other presidents, Trump is getting nearly all the cuts he requested. Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis are being subsequently canceled on party-line votes. No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate, 51-48, in the early morning hours Thursday. Two Republicans also voted no. 'We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters. The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure. The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending comes just weeks after Republicans also muscled through Trump's tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase the U.S. debt by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade. A heavy blow to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPR represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years. The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense. The corporation distributes more than two-thirds 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. Democrats were unsuccessful in restoring in the Senate. Lawmakers with large rural constituencies have voiced particular concern about what the cuts to public broadcasting could mean for some local public stations in their state. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., said 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. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some money 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.' Inside the cuts to foreign aid Among the foreign aid cuts are $800 million for a program that provides emergency shelter, water and family reunification for refugees 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 that the Republican 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 it takes to save a starving child or prevent the transmission of disease is minuscule, even as the investments secure cooperation with the U.S. on other issues. The cuts 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 Republican 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 rescissions request from the White House, the legislation only needs a simple majority vote to advance instead of the 60 votes usually required to break a filibuster. That meant Republicans could use their 53-47 majority to pass it along party lines. In the end, two Republican senators, Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, joined with Democrats in voting against the bill, though a few other Republicans also raised concerns about the process. 'Let's not make a habit of this,' said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi, 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. Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the imminent successful passage of the rescissions shows 'enthusiasm' for getting the nation's fiscal situation under control. 'We're happy to go to great lengths to get this thing done,' he said during a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. In response to questions about the relatively small size of the cuts -- $9 billion -- Vought said that was because 'I knew it would be hard' to pass in Congress. Vought said another rescissions package is 'likely to come soon.' 'But we're not there yet,' he said. ___ Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report. Kevin Freking And Mary Clare Jalonick, The Associated Press Sign in to access your portfolio
Washington Post
7 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
The House is poised to OK Trump's $9 billion cut to public broadcasting and foreign aid
WASHINGTON — The House is expected late Thursday to approve President Donald Trump's request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid as Republicans target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda. The White House had described the package as a test case and said that if Congress went along, more would come. The House's approval would mark the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and even then the results were more mixed. Unlike other presidents, Trump is getting nearly all the cuts he requested. Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis are being subsequently canceled on party-line votes. No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate, 51-48, in the early morning hours Thursday. Two Republicans also voted no. 'We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step,' House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters. The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure. The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending comes just weeks after Republicans also muscled through Trump's tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase the U.S. debt by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade. The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPR represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years. The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense. The corporation distributes more than two-thirds 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. Democrats were unsuccessful in restoring in the Senate. Lawmakers with large rural constituencies have voiced particular concern about what the cuts to public broadcasting could mean for some local public stations in their state. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., said 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. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some money 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.' Among the foreign aid cuts are $800 million for a program that provides emergency shelter, water and family reunification for refugees 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 that the Republican 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 it takes to save a starving child or prevent the transmission of disease is minuscule, even as the investments secure cooperation with the U.S. on other issues. The cuts 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 Republican President George W. Bush. 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 rescissions request from the White House, the legislation only needs a simple majority vote to advance instead of the 60 votes usually required to break a filibuster. That meant Republicans could use their 53-47 majority to pass it along party lines. In the end, two Republican senators, Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, joined with Democrats in voting against the bill, though a few other Republicans also raised concerns about the process. 'Let's not make a habit of this,' said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi, 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. Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the imminent successful passage of the rescissions shows 'enthusiasm' for getting the nation's fiscal situation under control. 'We're happy to go to great lengths to get this thing done,' he said during a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. In response to questions about the relatively small size of the cuts -- $9 billion -- Vought said that was because 'I knew it would be hard' to pass in Congress. Vought said another rescissions package is 'likely to come soon.' 'But we're not there yet,' he said. ___ Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
Associated Press
7 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
The House is poised to OK Trump's $9 billion cut to public broadcasting and foreign aid
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is expected late Thursday to approve President Donald Trump's request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid as Republicans target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda. The White House had described the package as a test case and said that if Congress went along, more would come. The House's approval would mark the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and even then the results were more mixed. Unlike other presidents, Trump is getting nearly all the cuts he requested. Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis are being subsequently canceled on party-line votes. No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate, 51-48, in the early morning hours Thursday. Two Republicans also voted no. 'We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step,' House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters. The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure. The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending comes just weeks after Republicans also muscled through Trump's tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase the U.S. debt by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade. A heavy blow to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPR represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years. The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense. The corporation distributes more than two-thirds 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. Democrats were unsuccessful in restoring in the Senate. Lawmakers with large rural constituencies have voiced particular concern about what the cuts to public broadcasting could mean for some local public stations in their state. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., said 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. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some money 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.' Inside the cuts to foreign aid Among the foreign aid cuts are $800 million for a program that provides emergency shelter, water and family reunification for refugees 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 that the Republican 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 it takes to save a starving child or prevent the transmission of disease is minuscule, even as the investments secure cooperation with the U.S. on other issues. The cuts 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 Republican 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 rescissions request from the White House, the legislation only needs a simple majority vote to advance instead of the 60 votes usually required to break a filibuster. That meant Republicans could use their 53-47 majority to pass it along party lines. In the end, two Republican senators, Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, joined with Democrats in voting against the bill, though a few other Republicans also raised concerns about the process. 'Let's not make a habit of this,' said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi, 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. Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the imminent successful passage of the rescissions shows 'enthusiasm' for getting the nation's fiscal situation under control. 'We're happy to go to great lengths to get this thing done,' he said during a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. In response to questions about the relatively small size of the cuts -- $9 billion -- Vought said that was because 'I knew it would be hard' to pass in Congress. Vought said another rescissions package is 'likely to come soon.' 'But we're not there yet,' he said. ___ Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
CTV News
02-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Trump tax-cut plan returns to U.S. House, Republicans divided on bill
The Senate side of the Capitol is seen in Washington, early Monday, June 30, 2025, as Republicans plan to begin a final push to advance President Donald Trump's big tax breaks and spending cuts package. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) The debate within U.S. President Donald Trump's Republican Party over a massive tax-cut and spending bill returns to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, as party leaders try to overcome internal divisions and meet a self-imposed July 4 deadline. The Senate passed the legislation, which nonpartisan analysts say will add $3.3 trillion to the nation's debt over the next decade, by the narrowest possible margin on Tuesday after intense debate on the bill's hefty price tag and substantial cuts to the Medicaid health care program. Similar divides exist in the House, which Republicans control by a 220-212 margin and where a fractious caucus has regularly bucked its leadership in recent years -- though members have so far not rejected major Trump priorities. 'The House will work quickly to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill that enacts President Trump's full America First agenda by the Fourth of July,' House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement on Tuesday, citing the bill's extension of Trump's 2017 individual tax cuts and increased funding for the military and immigration enforcement. House Republican leaders set an initial procedural vote on the bill for 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT). Some of the loudest Republican objections against it come from party hardliners angry that it does not sufficiently cut spending and a $5 trillion increase in the nation's debt ceiling, which lawmakers must address in the coming months or risk a devastating default on the nation's $36.2 trillion debt. 'What the Senate did was unconscionable,' said Representative Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, one of several fiscal hawks who spoke out against the Senate bill's higher price tag, accusing the Senate of handing out 'goodie bags' of spending to satisfy holdouts. Norman said he would vote against advancing the bill on Wednesday. Democrats are united in opposition to the bill, saying that its tax breaks disproportionately benefit the wealthy, while cutting services that lower- and middle-income Americans rely on. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that almost 12 million people could lose health insurance as a result of the bill. 'This is the largest assault on American healthcare in history,' Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Tuesday, pledging that his party will use 'all procedural and legislative options' to try to stop - or delay - passage. The version of the bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday would add more to the debt than the version first passed by the House in May and also includes more than $900 million in cuts to the Medicaid program for low-income Americans. Those cuts also raised concerns among some House Republicans. 'I will not support a final bill that eliminates vital funding our hospitals rely on,' Representative David Valadao of California said before Senate passage. Timing difficulties But some House Republicans worried about social safety-net cuts could find solace in the Senate's last-minute decision to set aside more money for rural hospitals, funding that Representative Nick Langworthy, a New York Republican, called 'a lifeline that will be very helpful to districts like mine.' Any changes made by the House would require another Senate vote, making it all but impossible to meet the July 4 deadline. Further complicating the timeline, a wave of storms in the Washington area on Tuesday night canceled flights, and some lawmakers from both parties detailed on social media plans to drive from their home districts to the Capitol for Wednesday's expected vote. A senior White House official said on Tuesday that Trump is expected to be 'deeply involved' in the whip operation this week. Trump for weeks has pushed for passage ahead of the July 4 Independence Day holiday, though he has also in recent days softened that deadline, describing it as less than critical. Any public opposition to the bill risks irking Trump, as was the case when the president slammed Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who announced his retirement after coming out in opposition to the bill. Another former Trump ally, the world's richest person Elon Musk, this week resumed an active campaign against the bill over social media, blasting its deficit-building effects. That has reignited a feud between Trump and Musk. (Reporting by Bo Erickson, Rick Cowan, and Nandita Bose; Editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)
