The House passed the first batch of Department of Government Efficiency cuts on Thursday by a 214-212 margin.
House Republicans secured enough votes to codify $9.4 billion in spending cuts despite uncertainty throughout the day that they had the votes to pass it, Politico reported. Republicans were still whipping tallies Thursday afternoon ahead of the vote, according to the report.
President Donald Trump exhorted Republicans to get it passed.
"The House of Representatives is NOW voting on my Administration’s first 'Rescissions' Bill,' he said in a Truth Social post. "The Rescissions Bill is a NO BRAINER, and every single Republican in Congress should vote, 'YES.'
GOP leadership had been tracking seven no votes from Republicans, according to the report. The Hill reported that up to 10 Republicans were mulling a vote against the recissions package that would claw back $9.4 billion in funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid, among other cuts.
"We think we have the votes. We’re going ahead with it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters.
And he did, by two.
Included in the recissions package is more than $1 billion that had been earmarked for PBS and NPR through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
"A lot of these public television networks are kind of the backbone infrastructure for a lot of rural Western states. So, there’s more to it than just ‘Frontline’ and ‘PBS NewsHour’ or whatever,” one GOP member told The Hill.
This story has been updated.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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