Senate poised to hand Trump $9B in cuts, second big legislative victory
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by Alexander Bolton, The Hill.com, July 16, 2025
Senate Republicans say they have the votes to pass a package of $9 billion in spending cuts, which would give President Trump another big legislative victory in less than a month after GOP leaders quelled a revolt from members of the powerful Appropriations Committee.
Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), told reporters Tuesday that the so-called rescissions package now has enough votes to pass the Senate after he and the Senate GOP leaders agreed to an amendment to remove cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the global initiative launched by President George W. Bush in 2003 to combat AIDS.
Vought, the administration’s chief budget watchdog, also worked out a side deal with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) to redirect money in the Interior Department to help approximately 28 radio stations across 14 states that broadcast onto tribal lands who are at risk of being hurt by $1.1 billion in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
As a result of the last-minute dealmaking, the overall size of the rescissions package is expected to shrink slightly from $9.4 billion to $9 billion.
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Getting Rounds to agree to vote for the package is a big win for the White House and Senate Republican leaders, as they can only afford to lose three GOP votes and still pass the package.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, had expressed misgivings over supporting the bill before it came to the Senate floor.
Collins announced early last month that she did not support rescissions to PEPFAR and global health programs while Murkowski said she had problems with the cuts to public broadcasting.
Senate Republicans control a 53-to-47-seat majority and can rely on Vice President Vance to break a tie vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) hailed the bill as a key piece of Trump’s legislative agenda and an important “down payment” on reducing the size of the federal government.
“What we’re talking about here is one-tenth of 1 percent of all federal spending,” he told reporters after Senate Republicans met with Vought on Tuesday, promising that Senate GOP colleagues would have a chance to offer amendments to the package.
“This is something that all of us believe is a priority. When you have $36 trillion dollar debt, we have to do something to get spending under control,” he said. “We can start to get this thing back into balance.”
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