$9.4B rescissions package narrowly passes House, cutting foreign aid
(The Center Square) – The House barely passed a controversial rescissions package Thursday, pulling billions in already allocated federal funding from multiple foreign aid and public broadcasting programs.
The Rescissions Act of 2025, compiled by the Office of Management and Budget, cancels $9.4 billion, including $8.3 billion for non-life saving foreign assistance and $1.1 billion for public broadcasting systems.
“It’s a drop in the bucket, but we will do what it takes to put Washington’s fiscal house in order,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said on X following the vote.
Six Republicans initially opposed the package, endangering the bill’s passage since all Democrats present voted against it. But two of the holdouts — Reps. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., and Don Bacon, R-Neb., — flipped their votes last-minute, making the final vote 214-212.
The four Republicans who ended up voting against the bill worried about its possible effects on the U.S.’s PEPFAR program, which combats AIDS and HIV globally.
Among other foreign aid projects, the rescissions package claws back $900 million from various USAID global health programs. OMB said the loss will not reduce treatment for HIV, AIDS, infectious diseases, or child and maternal health. Instead, it will zero out funding for programs related to population control and abortion, LGBTQ activities and equity programs.
Some of those claw backs include $3 million for circumcision, vasectomies and condoms in Zambia; $6 million for “Net Zero Cities” in Mexico; and $5.1 million to strengthen the “resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer global movements.”
The rescissions package also targets funding for “green” energy projects in developing countries, such as electric buses in Rwanda. The Clean Technology Fund will lose $125 million in funding, Developmental Assistance projects will lose a total of $2.5 billion, and the Economic Support Fund will lose $1.7 billion.
Nearly a third of the State department’s Migration and Refugee Assistance budget, or $800 million, will be cut. OMB argued that American taxpayers should not have to shoulder the brunt of overseas humanitarian assistance.
But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters Thursday the package is “reckless” and will “undermine America’s national security” by leaving aid vacuums that American adversaries like China could exploit.
As for the public broadcasting cuts, OMB made the case that taxpayers should not have to subsidize “politically biased” corporations like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As such, the package pulls back roughly $1.1 billion from the CPB budget appropriated for fiscal years 2024 through 2027.
House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that the rescissions package is “the first of many” that will continue to codify the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts to federal spending deemed wasteful or fraudulent.
The Recissions Act of 2025 now moves to the Senate, where only a majority vote is needed for it to pass.
