June 12 (UPI) — The House of Representatives narrowly approved axing $8.3 billion in funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development and another $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on Thursday.
The House voted 214-212 to approve the rescissions package of bills and send them to the Senate, which could pass the measures with a simple majority.
The measures were passed after two House Republicans switched their votes after initially opposing their passage.
Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Nick LaLota of New York opposed the rescission bills but voted for the measure with strong encouragement from House GOP leadership.
Four other GOP House members, Nicole Malliotakis of New York, Mark Amodei of Nevada, Mike Turner of Ohio and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania voted with 208 House Democrats to oppose the rescission package.
Four Democrats and two Republican House members did not vote on the rescission package.
The formerly Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency recommended the rescissions after reviewing USAID, PBS and NPR spending.
“I want to thank DOGE for their heroic and patriotic efforts,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters afterward.
“What we’re trying to do is ensure that every dollar spent by the federal government is used efficiently and effectively,” Johnson said.
Johnson conferred with LaLota and Bacon on the House floor while the vote was still open, but passage looked doubtful until they changed their votes.
LaLota said the conversation between him and Johnson involved state and local tax cuts in New York that are part of the “one big beautiful bill” that Trump wants passed to fund the federal government for the 2026 fiscal year.
“I had some conversations with the speaker that raised my level of confidence that will put this and future issues in the right trajectory,” LaLota told reporters afterward.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., also joined Johnson and LaLota for the floor conversation and then voted in favor of the measure.
Bacon had announced on Monday that he wouldn’t support the rescission package “if it guts an AIDS relief program,” namely the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which was started by former President George W. Bush.
President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social in April that “Republicans must defund and totally disassociate themselves from NPR and PBS,” further calling the stations “radical-left monsters.”
Johnson has called the request an opportunity to cancel “wasteful spending” that would “ensure greater accountability in government going forward.”
“There is no reason for any media organization to be singled out to receive federal funds, especially those who appear to have so little regard for the truth,” Johnson previously said.
As for USAID, Johnson said DOGE “went after USAID first for their review, their audits,” because it allegedly “opposed the loudest of this accountability measure,” which “put the scrutiny targets on their own backs.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., accused House Republicans of “debating legislation that targets Elmo and Big Bird and Daniel Tiger and Sesame Street” instead of legislation that could help the nation and its economy during floor debate on Thursday.
Congress has the ability to cancel funds that the federal government had previously appropriated but hasn’t spent under the rescissions process.
The president can temporarily defer or withhold such funds, but only with the approval of Congress.
Republicans currently hold a seven-seat majority in the House. In the case of the Senate, where there are 53 Republicans among its 100 seats, rescission bills only require a simple majority.