The White House’s $9.4 billion spending cuts package advanced on Wednesday, clearing a key procedural hurdle and paving the way for a full House vote later this week.
The proposal, introduced as legislation by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), includes $8.3 billion in cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and just over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides federal funding to PBS and NPR.
The House approved a “rule vote” to proceed with the measure, passing largely along party lines. This vote sets the stage for floor debate, followed by a final vote on the spending cuts package.
House Republican leaders also added a provision to make minor adjustments to President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” to accommodate expected Senate amendments, according to Fox News. That broader legislation, currently undergoing the budget reconciliation process, would allocate billions for border security and make the president’s 2017 tax cuts permanent.
By lowering the threshold to pass the bill in the Senate from 60 votes to a simple majority of 51, Republicans can advance the sweeping legislation without Democratic support, so long as they comply with specific budget reconciliation rules. House GOP leaders said they needed to make the recent changes to the bill to better adhere to the Senate’s “Byrd Bath,” when the Senate parliamentarian reviews the bill and removes anything not adhering to reconciliation guidelines,” Fox News reported.
While much of the “Big Beautiful Bill” focuses on mandatory spending, the $9.4 billion spending cuts package targets discretionary spending—funds that Congress allocates annually. Known as a “rescissions package,” it represents a formal request by the White House to revoke federal funds that have already been approved for the current fiscal year.
Similar to the reconciliation process, the rescissions mechanism allows the Senate to pass the measure with a simple 51-vote majority instead of the usual 60. Congress has 45 days to act on the proposal before it is automatically considered rejected.
