The bulk of Donald Trump's US$9 billion cuts in funding target countries hit by disease, war and natural disasters. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The bulk of Donald Trump's US$9 billion cuts in funding target countries hit by disease, war and natural disasters. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
US Republicans have approved President Donald Trump’s plan to cancel $9 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, vowing it is just the start of broader efforts by Congress to slash the federal budget.
The cuts achieve only a tiny fraction of the $1 trillion in annual savingsthat tech billionaire and estranged Trump donor Elon Musk vowed to find before his acrimonious exit in May from a role spearheading federal cost-cutting.
But Republicans, who recently passed a domestic policy bill expected to add more than $3 trillion to US debt, said the vote honoured Trump’s election campaign pledge to rein in spending.
Trump's $9b budget cuts pass, targeting foreign aid and public broadcasting.
“President Trump and House Republicans promised fiscal responsibility and government efficiency,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement just after the vote.
“Today, we’re once again delivering on that promise.”
Both chambers of Congress are Republican-controlled, meaning a House of Representatives vote of 216 to 213, moments after midnight local time, was sufficient to rubber-stamp the Senate-approved measure.
Most of the cuts target programmes for countries hit by disease, war and natural disasters, but the move also scraps $1.1 billion that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was due to receive over the next two years.
Conservatives often accuse the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio of bias. Trump signed an executive order in May to cease federal funding for both networks. Photo / AFP
Conservatives say the funding, which goes mostly to more than 1500 local public radio and TV stations, as well as to public broadcasters NPR and PBS, is unnecessary and has funded biased coverage.
