House Passes $9.4 Billion Rescissions Package to Codify DOGE Cuts to PBS, NPR, USAID
The House of Representatives voted to pass a $9.4 billion rescissions package that would codify Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
In a 214-212 vote on Thursday, the House passed the package which would eliminate wasteful spending and cut “approximately” $8.3 billion, and $1.1 billion that was “allocated” to go towards USAID and the CPB, respectively, the New York Postreported.
Both the National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) are funded by the CPB.
Breitbart News previously reported that at the beginning of June, President Donald Trump’s administration had sent the rescissions package to the House.
In a joint statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) vowed that House Republicans would “fulfill” their “mandate and continue codifying into law a more efficient federal government.”
“Now that this wasteful spending by the federal government has been identified by DOGE, quantified by the Administration, and sent to Congress, House Republicans will fulfill our mandate and continue codifying into law a more efficient federal government,” Johnson, Scalise, Emmer, and McClain said.
Trump previously signed an executive order in May that directed the CPB Board of Directors, and “all executive departments and agencies to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.”
The executive order states in part:
At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize. The CPB’s governing statute reflects principles if impartiality: the CPB may not “contribute to or otherwise support any political party.” 47 U.S.C. 396(f)(3); see also id. 396(e)(2).
The CPB fails to abide by these principles to the extent it subsidizes NPR and PBS. Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter. What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.
I therefore instruct the CPB Board of Directors (CPB Board) and all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.
Johnson pointed out that the passage of the rescissions package “marks a critical step toward a more responsible and transparent government.”
“Today’s House passage of this initial rescissions package marks a critical step toward a more responsible and transparent government that puts the interests of the American taxpayers first,” Johnson wrote in a post on X. “Thanks to DOGE’s work, this package eliminates $9.4 billion in unnecessary and wasteful spending at the State Department, USAID, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds politically biased media outlets like NPR and PBS.”
