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Congress has approved President Donald Trump\u2019s request to strip away $9 billion in federal funding already allocated for foreign aid and public media. The move is the first of its kind in more than two decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the wee hours of Friday, July 18, the House of Representatives gave the go-ahead to changes the Senate made to the Rescissions Act of 2025<\/a>. The original bill cleared the House in June by a two-vote margin, with four Democrats and two Republicans absent. The House passed the Senate update on a 216-213 vote<\/a>, with no Democrats voting in favor and two Republicans breaking with their party, sending it to the president for his signature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump is expected to sign the measure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Senate amended Trump’s initial request during an overnight \u201cvote-o-rama” that stretched into Thursday morning. That change preserved $400,000 in funding for the President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The State Department<\/a> credits the George W. Bush-era program with saving tens of millions of lives in 50 countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not spared was more than $1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for the next two fiscal years. The private nonprofit funds PBS, NPR, and more than 1,500<\/a> local public media stations across the country, including NMPBS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a last-ditch effort, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-NM, proposed an amendment in the House Rules Committee<\/a> for CPB to retain its federal funding, calling public media \u201cbeloved and essential.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should be supporting those things that really make America a place of kindness and information and support for our public,\u201d Leger Fernandez told Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The amendment failed on a 9-4 party-line vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n