WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is asking Congress to claw back $9.4 billion of federal funding to reflect a portion of the cuts made by Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency.
The long-awaited request sent to Congress on June 3 would strip funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, and from foreign aid agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Health Organization.
Republicans in the House and Senate are expected to move quickly to enact the cuts, which are a sliver of the $175 billion DOGE claims to have cut from the federal government. Musk, who departed the administration in late May, initially aimed to eliminate $2 trillion in government spending.
Congress has 45 days to act on the request. Passing it would require only a majority vote in the Senate, unlike most policies, which require a 60-vote threshold to overcome the filibuster.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that the panel will “carefully review the rescissions package and examine the potential consequences of these rescissions on global health, national security, emergency communications in rural communities, and public radio and television stations.”
The Office of Management and Budget announced the request through a post on X, through which they detailed several specific cuts, such as “electric buses in Rwanda” and “‘net zero cities’ in Mexico.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement that the lower chamber will vote on the proposal “as quickly as possible.”
“Under President Trump, every federal taxpayer dollar is actually being used to serve the American people, not to fund a bloated bureaucracy or purely partisan pet projects,” Johnson said. “We thank Elon Musk and his DOGE team for identifying a wide range of wasteful, duplicative, and outdated programs, and House Republicans are eager to eliminate them.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, called the public media cut an effort to “settle political scores and muzzle the free press,” and the cuts to foreign aid as hurting programs that “push back on China’s malign influence, save lives, and address other bipartisan priorities.”
The White House provided justification for each proposed rollback in the formal request sent to Congress. For example, one request to eliminate $500 million from USAID’s budget would strip funding for activities related to child and maternal health, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.
“This proposal would not reduce treatment but would eliminate programs that are antithetical to American interests and worsen the lives of women and children, like ‘family planning’ and ‘reproductive health,’ LGBTQI+ activities, and ‘equity’ programs,” the White House’s request reads. “Enacting the rescission would reinstate focus on appropriate health and life spending. This best serves the American taxpayer.”
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
