The Republican-controlled House of Representatives in the US has passed President Donald Trump’s $9 billion funding cut to public media and foreign aid, sending it to the White House to be signed into law.
The chamber voted 216 to 213 in favor of the funding cut package, which was altered by the Senate to exclude cuts of about $400 million in funds for the global PEPFAR HIV/Aids prevention program.
Only two House Republicans, Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania and Mike Turner from Ohio, voted against the cut, along with Democrats.
Rep. Aaron Bean, a Florida Republican, said this move is a step towards fiscal sanity and cutting wasteful spending.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries argued that the funding cut undermines America’s ability to project its soft power and will diminish access to emergency information for rural Americans on public radio.
The funding vote was delayed for hours due to Republican disagreements about other legislation and calls for government transparency regarding Jeffrey Epstein.
To address these concerns, Republicans introduced a resolution calling for the release of Epstein documents by the US attorney general within 30 days.
Top Democrat on the rules panel, Rep. Jim McGovern, criticized the resolution, calling it a “glorified press release” because it lacks an enforcement mechanism.
This is the second close House vote on Trump’s request to cut funds previously approved by Democrats and fellow Republicans.
Republicans felt extra pressure to pass the Senate version as Trump’s administration would have been forced to spend the money if Congress did not approve the cuts by the deadline.
The $9 billion cut is only a small fraction of the country’s $6.8 trillion federal budget.
Republicans argue that these funds previously went to programs they deem wasteful and support radio stations and PBS television, which they claim are biased against conservative viewpoints.
The legislation, known as a rescissions package, was approved by a narrow margin of 51 votes to 48 in the Senate, with all Democrats opposed.
This funding clawback represents a small portion of all the funds approved by Congress that the Trump administration has blocked while pursuing sweeping cuts.
Democrats say the administration has blocked over $425 billion of spending approved by Congress since Trump’s second term began in January.
