JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The Senate is debating a package of spending cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting. Late last night, Vice President JD Vance had to break a tie to start the process. Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt says the bill shows that Republicans are doing what voters want.
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ERIC SCHMITT: Which is to find waste, to find fraud and find abuse, and also to realign the taxpayer dollars that go out the door with actual American interests.
SUMMERS: NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh joins us from the Capitol. And before we get started, we should note, no NPR corporate or news executive has had any involvement in this report, right, Deirdre?
DEIRDRE WALSH, BYLINE: Exactly.
SUMMERS: All right, Deirdre, tell us - is this on track to pass?
WALSH: You know, it appears to be, but they may need the vice president to break a tie again. Republican leaders couldn't lose more than three votes last night to start the process. Three did vote no. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all say the administration didn't give enough detail on the cuts. Collins and Murkowski also say they oppose zeroing out two years of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They do say they agree with Republican criticisms that there's been some ideologically biased coverage by NPR in some stories, but they say that it's critical to preserve funding for local stations in their states. Should say that NPR executives pushed back on claims of bias, but right now the Senate is debating and voting on a bunch of amendments as some senators try to make changes to the bill.
SUMMERS: So far, any changes expected to get enough votes to pass?
WALSH: Really just one that we know about - Collins and some other Republicans did succeed at getting the administration to agree to drop a proposed $400 million cut to PEPFAR. That's the global health program created by then-President George W. Bush to fund efforts to combat HIV and AIDS. But really, no other amendments are expected to pass. So at the end of this process, we expect this to be a $9 billion package with roughly 8 billion in foreign aid programs cut and 1 billion in cuts to public media. North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis admits there isn't a lot of details on actually what is going to be cut, but he says he's going to trust the administration since this is really the first, he says, relatively small package. But he did say they may have to reverse some cuts later.
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THOM TILLIS: I do think that we will probably find some cuts, similar to some other decisions that have been made by some of the president's advisers that they're going to get blowback for, and they'll probably find some way to restore some of the funding.
SUMMERS: Deirdre, tell us, what does the fight over this first spending cuts package mean for future debates about government funding?
WALSH: I mean, they're just going to be really partisan. Senator Patty Murray, who's the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, called this bill a Pandora's box of cuts.
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PATTY MURRAY: We are not just voting on the devastating cuts in this package. We are also voting on how the Senate is going to spend the rest of the year. Are we just going to do recission after recission?
WALSH: Democrats are warning if Republicans are walking away now from agreements and bills that Congress already passed, why should they negotiate on spending bills this fall? Republicans do control both chambers of Congress, but they always need votes from Democrats to pass spending bills. So I just think this whole debate really increases the chances of a possible government shutdown later this year.
SUMMERS: Deirdre, I know you'll be watching late into the night, but I do want to ask you, if the Senate passes this, where does this legislation go next?
WALSH: It would head over to the House, but the clock is ticking. In order to meet the deadline set in the law, the House would have to pass this by Friday at midnight. If Congress fails to approve the bill, the administration has to release the funds.
SUMMERS: That is NPR's Deirdre Walsh at the Capitol. Thank you.
WALSH: Thanks, Juana. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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