June 25 (UPI) — White House budget director Russell Vought on Wednesday urged U.S. senators to approve the Trump administration’s proposed cuts of $8.3 billion in foreign assistance and $1.1 billion for public broadcasting.
Vought testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The cuts, which are from the Department of Government Efficiency, are a tiny fraction of the nearly $7 trillion the federal government spends each year
The House last week voted 214-212 to advance the request that reduces funds for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has largely been dismantled, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps to fund NPR and PBS.
Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate. A simple majority is needed for passage.
A group of protesters disrupted the meeting, saying “Vought’s Cuts Kill,” and “Vought Lies, People Die!”
Capitol Police officers forcibly removed some protesters from the room, with at least one hitting his head on the floor.
During his opening remarks, Vought touted the cuts as part of Trump’s “steadfast commitment to cutting wasteful federal spending antithetical to American interests.”
“Most Americans would be shocked and appalled to learn that their tax dollars, money they thought was going to medical care, was actually going to far-left activism, population control and sex workers,” Vought said. “To be clear, no lifesaving treatment will be impacted by this rescissions package.”
If Congress approves the cuts, the AIDS program would lose $400 million, and another $500 million would be stripped from global health programs that support child and maternal health, AIDS care and prevention of infectious diseases.
Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the proposed cuts.
“There’s no way that President Trump’s administration would allow such wasteful and questionable spending,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, told Vought.
“So, I am puzzled why you would be cutting funds that the president signed in March as part of the continuing resolution.”
Trump signed legislation in March to keep the government open through September.
Vought responded the costs are “largely multiyear funding,” and that “there is some expiring funds with regard to fiscal year ’25, but the way that this was structured was to find the waste.
“We are $37 trillion in national debt,” Vought said. “Our view is to see, when we look at these programs, can we do it cheaper, as evidenced by what we find, and then to reflect that, with some savings to the taxpayer.”
Collins also questioned the administration’s proposed cuts targeting the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
“These are not only the right thing to do for humanitarian reasons, but they’re incredible instruments of soft power,” she said. That includes “lifesaving multivitamins for pregnant mothers and the food supplement that’s used for malnourished children.”
Collins held up a packet of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food used to treat malnutrition in babies and young children.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican serving South Carolina, said he was surprised that millions of dollars were being spent to support abortions and gender care under PEPFAR. The AIDS-fighting program has been credited for saving millions of lives since President George W. Bush launched it more than 20 years ago.
Graham said he would approve the measure though he backs the program.
“And to my Democratic colleagues: There is a consequence to this crap,” Graham said. “The first thing I thought about: How is PEPFAR fraud, waste and abuse? Well, I had no idea there was one dollar spent like this.”
GOP members in the House and Senate have voiced concerns about the potential impact cuts would have on local stations and rural radio.
“We have Native American radio stations in South Dakota. They get their funding through NPR,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said during the hearing. “Ninety-some percent of what they use.”
The director called PBS and NPR “radical far-left networks,” and “there is no longer any excuse for tax dollars to subsidize” them.
