Trump’s cuts to NPR, PBS and foreign aid clear Congress

Washington – The House controlled by the Republicans voted on 216-213 to grant a final passage to a bill reducing $ 9 billion in expenses which had already been approved, sending it to President Donald Trump to become law.

The cuts aimed at the public media and foreign aid were adopted in another vote in the middle of the night on Capitol Hill, one day after the Senate voted 51 to 48 after 2 am Thursday to approve the measure. Two Republicans joined all the Democrats to oppose the package in the House: Mike Turner representatives of Ohio and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

The measure reduces $ 1.1 billion from the public distribution company, which provides funding for NPR and PBS. It reduces $ 8 billion more foreign aid, notably to the American agency for development and international programs in order to promote global health and refugee assistance. But the cuts planned for the PEPFAR have been withdrawn from the packaging in recent days, leaving the financing of the Bush era foreign aid program to combat HIV / AIDS intact.

The package, which was requested by the White House, adopted the two chambers with only Republican votes through a process of “resistance” rarely used which can bypass the threshold of 60 vote in the Senate. GOP leaders praised as an attempt to reduce the government’s “awakened and useless” expenses.

“This bill this evening is part of the continuation of this tendency to control expenses. Does this answer all the problems? No. Nine billion dollars, I would say, is a good start, and I hope that we do more things like this,” said the head of the majority of the room, Steve Scalizes, R-La.

The Democrats were united to oppose the package, slamming the cuts as cruel, prejudicial to the American management and a cynical attempt to the GOP to appear fiscally after adding 3.3 billions of dollars to the debt of its Mégabill of Party which adopted the Congress this month.

The Chamber voted after the Republican leaders repressed a rebellion of their members in the rules of rules which wanted to vote to force the government to publish files relating to the sexual offender sentenced Jeffrey Epstein, a question that has divided the Maga wing of the party in recent days. They appeared these GOP legislators by approving a separate “rule”, setting up a vote next week on a symbolic resolution calling for the publication of certain Epstein documents.

Representative Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Who proposed a distinct measure linked to the Epstein which would carry the strength of the law, qualified suddenly by the leaders of his party.

“Congress thinks that you are stupid,” said Massie on X. “The rules committee has adopted a non -binding resolution of Epstein, hoping that people will accept it as real. This forces the release of nothing.”

Representative Jamie Raskin, D-MD., Said that Massie’s proposal, co-written by representative Ro Khanna, D-Calif., A “teeth”. On the other hand, he said, the version that the Republicans advance is “a resolution of a meaningless hortatory fig tree that has no teeth at all”.

“He doesn’t even have dental prostheses. They are all cavities,” said Raskin. (Democrats, eager to exchange the flames of the Republican intestines, adopted to push to release Epstein documents.)

Representative Brandon Gill, R-Texas, described the national cuts “to defeat the points of sale sponsored by the left state”. Other Republicans – notably the Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted against the measure – warned that the NPR and PBS cuts could harm the rural areas that rested on public broadcasting.

Representative Teresa Leger Fernández, DN.M. said: “The public will remember who was with Big Bird and who strangled her.”

The bill had to return to the House after the Senate had $ 9.4 billion, eliminating $ 400 million in proposals for Pepfar, which many Republicans have declared to support.

Before the vote, the best democrats in the two chambers warned that the GOP strangles the bipartite nature of government financing by canceling the spending previously approved in the supporter. They also said that the cancellation package gives way to the executive branch too much.

“I fear deeply that at a time when creditors must meet to defend our power from the bag, the way that the majority has chosen will only survive to degrade the efficiency and credibility of what we do in this room,” said representative Rosa Delauro, D-Conn.