Vance Casts Tie-Breaking Vote to Advance $9B DOGE Cuts

Vice President JD Vance once again cast the tiebreaking vote to advance the bill to codify the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts in the narrowly divided Senate (50-50).

Republicans lost three votes, as they sided with the 45 Democrats and two independents to try to stop the bill from moving on to debate, and potentially, a final vote as early as Wednesday.

Long voting against President Donald Trump's urgings, Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined with Democrats in voting against the Senate taking up the measure.

The rescissions bill, up against the Friday deadline to be signed or lock in former President Joe Biden-era spending levels for public media outlets and foreign aid is now trimmed from $9.4 billion to $9 billion with Senate Republicans moving to keep in $400 million of HIV/AIDS aid.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after having to bend to the Senate's changes on the One Big Beautiful Bill budget-reconciliation package, had said he did not want the House to have to approve another Senate tweak to spend more.

Republicans winnowed down the president's request by taking out his proposed $400 million cut to a program known as PEPFAR. That change increased the prospects for the bill's passage. The politically popular program is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under then-President George W. Bush to combat HIV/AIDS.

The president is also looking to claw back money for foreign aid programs targeted by DOGE and for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

"When you've got a $36 trillion debt, we have to do something to get spending under control," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.

Republicans met with Russ Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, during their weekly conference luncheon as the White House worked to address their concerns. He fielded about 20 questions from senators.

The White House campaign to win over potential holdouts had some success. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., tweeted he would vote to support the measure after working with the administration to "find Green New Deal money that could be reallocated to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption."

Some senators worried that the cuts to public media could decimate many of the 1,500 local radio and television stations around the country that rely on some federal funding to operate. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributes more than 70% of its funding to those stations.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she was particularly concerned about a lack of specifics from the White House.

"The rescissions package has a big problem — nobody really knows what program reductions are in it," Collins said. "That isn't because we haven't had time to review the bill. Instead, the problem is that OMB has never provided the details that would normally be part of this process."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she did not want the Senate to be going through numerous rounds of rescissions.

"We are lawmakers. We should be legislating," Murkowski said. "What we're getting now is a direction from the White House and being told: 'This is the priority and we want you to execute on it. We'll be back with you with another round.' I don't accept that."

McConnell said he wanted to make clear he did not have any problem with reducing spending, but agreed with Collins that lawmakers did not have enough details from the White House.

"They would like a blank check is what they would like, and I don't think that's appropriate," McConnell said.

But the large majority of Republicans were supportive of Trump's request.

"This bill is a first step in a long but necessary fight to put our nation's fiscal house in order," Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said.

Democrats warned that it is absurd to expect them to work with Republicans on bipartisan spending measures if Republicans turn around a few months later and use their majority to cut the parts they do not like.

"It shreds the appropriations process," said Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats. "The Appropriations Committee, and indeed this body, becomes a rubber stamp for whatever the administration wants."