US Republicans early Friday approved President Donald Trump’s plan to cancel $9 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, vowing it was just the start of broader efforts by Congress to slash the federal budget.The cuts achieve only a tiny fraction of the $1 trillion in annual savings that tech billionaire and estranged Trump donor Elon Musk vowed to find before his acrimonious exit in May from a role spearheading federal cost-cutting.But Republicans — who recently passed a domestic policy bill expected to add more than $3 trillion to US debt — said the vote honored Trump’s election campaign pledge to rein in runaway spending.”President Trump and House Republicans promised fiscal responsibility and government efficiency,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement just after the vote.”Today, we’re once again delivering on that promise.”Both chambers of Congress are Republican-controlled, meaning a party-line House of Representatives vote of 216 to 213, moments after midnight, was sufficient to rubber-stamp the Senate-passed measure.Most of the cuts target programs for countries hit by disease, war and natural disasters but the move also scraps $1.1 billion that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was due to receive over the next two years.Conservatives say the funding — which goes mostly to more than 1,500 local public radio and TV stations, as well as to public broadcasters NPR and PBS — is unnecessary and has funded biased coverage.
US Republicans early Friday approved President Donald Trump’s plan to cancel $9 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, vowing it was just the start of broader efforts by Congress to slash the federal budget.The cuts achieve only a tiny fraction of the $1 trillion in annual savings that tech billionaire and estranged Trump donor Elon Musk vowed to find before his acrimonious exit in May from a role spearheading federal cost-cutting.But Republicans — who recently passed a domestic policy bill expected to add more than $3 trillion to US debt — said the vote honored Trump’s election campaign pledge to rein in runaway spending.”President Trump and House Republicans promised fiscal responsibility and government efficiency,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement just after the vote.”Today, we’re once again delivering on that promise.”Both chambers of Congress are Republican-controlled, meaning a party-line House of Representatives vote of 216 to 213, moments after midnight, was sufficient to rubber-stamp the Senate-passed measure.Most of the cuts target programs for countries hit by disease, war and natural disasters but the move also scraps $1.1 billion that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was due to receive over the next two years.Conservatives say the funding — which goes mostly to more than 1,500 local public radio and TV stations, as well as to public broadcasters NPR and PBS — is unnecessary and has funded biased coverage.
