WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly passed President Donald Trump's request to slash $9.4 billion in spending on foreign aid and public broadcasting, sending the package for consideration by the Senate.
The measure passed the House, where Trump's Republicans hold a slim majority and have shown little appetite for opposing his initiatives, by 214-212. Only four Republicans joined 208 Democrats in voting against the bill after a few others who had initially cast "no" votes switched to the "yes" column.
Six House members - two Republicans and four Democrats - did not vote.
It was a victory for Trump, who had lobbied for the measure, including in a post on his Truth Social media site just before the vote. He referred to foreign aid as wasteful and called National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service a "Radical Left Disaster."
If the Senate approves the bill and it becomes law, the "rescissions" memo requesting the elimination of $9.4 billion in spending already approved by lawmakers would make permanent some of the cuts put in place through Trump's executive orders or Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
The package's fate in the Senate is less certain. Several senators have expressed concerns about some cuts, including to local broadcasters and global health programs like PEPFAR, a program begun under Republican President George W. Bush to combat HIV/AIDS credited with saving 26 million lives.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the Senate could change the package. "We'll see," he told reporters.
The Senate has until July 18 to act on the legislation, or it will expire and the White House will be required to adhere to the spending plans passed by Congress.
Presidential rescissions packages have not passed in years, because previous Congresses have not wanted to give up their constitutionally mandated control of government spending. For example, lawmakers rejected Trump's request to revoke $15 billion in spending in 2018, during his first term.
'AMERICA FIRST'
Most of the cuts in this year's package - $8.3 billion - are for foreign aid, with the remaining $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS.
Backers of the legislation in the House said it supported Trump's "America First" agenda and that the United States should not be sending money abroad rather than spending it on Americans in the United States, at a time of budget deficits.
"It's all borrowed money," Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, said in a speech before the vote.
Opponents noted that foreign aid accounts for less than 1% of federal spending but has a huge "soft power" impact in increasing goodwill toward the United States, and saving lives.
Democrats noted studies estimating that hundreds of thousands of people risked starvation or death from preventable diseases because of the sharp cuts in foreign assistance by the United States, which had been the world's biggest donor.
"People will die," said Representative Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat, in remarks opposing the measure.
The cuts include rescinding $496 million of the $4 billion Congress approved for international disaster assistance, $460 million appropriated to assist former communist countries in Europe and Central Asia; $400 million of $6 billion for global health programs like fighting HIV/AIDS, and $142 million designated for UNICEF, the United Nations' children's fund.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Alistair Bell)
By Patricia Zengerle
