Trump asking Congress to help with $9.4 billion in DOGE cuts
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The White House is planning to send a $9.4 billion rescissions package to Congress next Tuesday, giving lawmakers the opportunity to codify some of the potential cuts identified by DOGE, according to an administration official.
Why it matters: The White House wants a big public fight over funding for NPR, PBS and foreign aid. They are likely to get it.
- The formal transmission of the package to Congress will start a 45-day clock for lawmakers to claw back funding that has previously been appropriated.
- The future of NPR, PBS, the USAID and United States Agency of International Development are hanging in the balance.
- Trump has been clear that he wants to defund those organizations, but he may need Republicans in Congress to supply the votes to cut off their money supply.
Zoom in: The proposed cuts would trim $1.1 billion from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and $8.3 billion in foreign assistance, from both USAID and the African Development Foundation.
- NPR and PBS receive the bulk of their funding from nongovernmental sources, but Corporation for Public Broadcasting allocates about $535 million in federal funding annually to them.
- The Office of Management and Budget has identified foreign aid grants that it's convinced will bolster its case for cutting funding for USAID and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
- Officials will identify grants like $882,000 for social media mentorship in Serbia and Belarus or $1 million for voter ID in Haiti to make their case against USAID, according to an administration official.
Zoom out: On May 1, Trump signed an executive order to end "taxpayer subsidization of biased media," which directed the CPB to end its funding for NPR and PBS, the country's two biggest public broadcasters.
- PBS CEO Paula Kerger told Axios at News Shapers event April 30 that she was prepared to "vigorously" defend the independent broadcaster's board.
- NPR sued the White House on Tuesday, citing the First Amendment and alleging Trump's effort to starve them of their funding amounted to a "clear violation of the Constitution.
- NPR's CEO Katherine Maher was grilled by GOP lawmakers at a hearing in March including 2020 tweets where she described Trump as a "racist" and "sociopath."
- Speaker Mike Johnson told Axios back in April that it was fair for elected representatives to evaluate whether something is a "good use of taxpayer dollars."
The intrigue: Trump's efforts to shutter the U.S. Institute of Peace have been challenged in the courts, with a federal judge ruling last week that the institute and the ousted president had a right to return after DOGE staffers took over the building earlier this year.
The bottom line: The White House is eager to engage in a congressional fight over a relatively small amount of money, but over programs and policies that have big cultural and political implications.
