Senate GOP finds bright spot in pared-back DOGE cuts: 'Spending is easy up here. Cutting is hard'

Senate Republicans were on track late Wednesday to pass a slimmed-down $9 billion package of spending cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting that will codify a small portion of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts.

The Senate was voting on a series of amendments to the House-passed $9.4 billion cuts package late into the night, including one that would restore a $400 million cut to a global AIDS prevention program.

President Trump, through the White House Office of Management and Budget, had requested $9.4 billion in rescissions, roughly 5% of the $190 billion in government savings identified by the Department of Government Efficiency.

Barring any surprises during the amendment vote series, Republicans expected to pass $9 billion of those cuts – $7.9 billion from various foreign aid accounts and $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

“I’m frustrated about it,” Sen. Jim Banks, Indiana Republican, told The Washington Times. “It’s already a drop in the bucket. We’re making it even smaller. But it’s still a $9 billion cut. And my request to the White House is to quickly send us the next one.”

The rescissions process is exempt from the Senate filibuster, allowing Republicans to pass the cuts without Democratic support. The House will need to vote on the amended version of the package that the Senate passes before Friday’s deadline to enact the cuts.

While a few Republicans shared Mr. Banks’ frustration and disappointment in not passing the full $9.4 billion package, most believe keeping the $400 million in funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, does not take away from their pending victory.

“I love $9 billion. You kidding me? In this town,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, Missouri Republican who led the rescissions negotiations, said with a laugh, acknowledging that in Washington it’s much easier to increase spending than to cut it.

“A lot of people have talked about this for a long time, and we’re on the cusp of actually delivering, and I think that’s an important step forward,” Mr. Schmitt said. “There’s a lot more to do, but this is a big step.”

While Congress regularly works with the White House to include smaller rescissions of unspent funds in annual appropriations bills, the $9 billion package is the first standalone presidential rescissions request since Mr. Trump requested $15 billion in cuts during his first term. 

The Senate rejected that 2018 package, making the stakes that much higher for his cost-cutting efforts in his second term.

“I’m happy with whatever we pass,” Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, told The Times. “Spending is easy up here. Cutting is hard. So it’s just work. You just got to keep after it.”

White House OMB Director Russell Vought has said a successful Senate vote on the first rescissions package would lead to more.

That prospect has comforted Republicans who preferred to pass the full $9.4 billion in cuts the president requested.

“We’ll do more,” Sen. John Hoeven, North Dakota Republican, said, noting that the $400 million trim was needed to get 51 votes to pass the first package.

Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, said lawmakers won’t take the initiative to cut spending, so White House-requested rescissions packages are the only way further reductions will happen.

“I’m convinced that there is no way that Congress is ever going to reduce spending on its own, not in this current political environment,” he said. “I’m not saying that’s a happy circumstance. I’m saying it just reflects reality.”

Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, had a similar outlook when asked if he was frustrated the Senate couldn’t pass the White House’s full $9.4 billion rescissions request. 

“I would like to do a lot more,” he told The Times. “But there’s hopes and wishes and then there’s reality. This is our reality.”

Mr. Trump has sent mixed signals about his appetite for cutting spending.

He has said he wants to balance the federal budget, but then told Republicans during the negotiations over the One Big Beautiful Bill “don’t go too crazy” with the cuts because they still need to get reelected.

The president lost that attitude when the Senate took up the rescissions bill, instead threatening that he would withhold his endorsement and political support for any Republican who opposes the spending cut package.

However, his interest was primarily about fulfilling a longtime GOP promise to cut taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS, which he criticized for being liberally biased.

“Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post.

The bill would end taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS for at least the next two fiscal years by cutting $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

While Republicans had to pare back the foreign aid cuts to win enough votes to pass the package, they celebrated their ability to leave the broadcast funding cuts intact.

“We’re going to cut them off like a dead stump,” Mr. Kennedy said. “The president of public broadcasting has said repeatedly that she thinks ‘America is addicted to White supremacy.’ She said repeatedly that we should stop using the terms boys and girls because it just confuses people. She is entitled to her opinion. This is America. But she’s not entitled to $600 million a year to advance her opinion.”