Republicans finally got their “big, beautiful bill” across the finish line. Now they’re turning to their next urgent tasks: codifying billions in spending cuts and avoiding a government shutdown.
The Senate plans to vote no earlier than next week on President Donald Trump’s request for lawmakers to scrap $9.4 billion in previously approved funding for NPR, PBS and foreign aid, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss the plans. That’s running dangerously close to lawmakers’ July 18 deadline to vote in favor of the rescissions package, or the administration will be forced to spend the money as Congress originally intended.
GOP leaders have work to do to shore up votes for the package, which would formalize funding cuts previously sought by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative. Among the wary Republicans is top Senate Appropriator Susan Collins, who helped tank Trump’s unsuccessful rescissions request back in 2018. The Maine Republican said during a late-June hearing with White House budget chief Russ Vought that reducing support for the AIDS-fighting program PEPFAR would be “extraordinarily ill-advised and short-sighted;” Collins later told Calen that she’s looking at “drafting an alternative package of rescissions.” Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota have also echoed Collins’ warnings about slashing money for public broadcasting, with Sullivan saying he’s seeking an amendment for “very rural” stations that would be affected by the White House proposal.
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— NDAA to shake up the Pentagon: House Armed Services is aiming to make it harder to withdraw troops from Europe and change how the Pentagon buys its weapons as it heads toward a markup next Tuesday of the annual defense bill. Senate Armed Services will mark up its version of the defense bill this week; the full panel debate is slated to begin Tuesday afternoon and will likely take several days.