WASHINGTON, D.C. – By a vote of 51 to 48 the United States Senate advanced the Rescissions Act of 2025 to rescind $9 billion in unnecessary, wasteful federal funds. The bill, which passed the House of Representatives in June by a vote of 214 to 212, will now return to the House for final consideration.
The Rescissions Act of 2025 formalizes $9 billion in requested cuts made by the Trump administration. The bill contains 20 targeted rescissions of unobligated balances. Under the Impoundment Control Act, Congress must address the administration’s requested cuts within a 45-day window, or the funding remains in federal coffers. The bill must be sent to President Trump’s desk by Friday.
U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a member of the Senate DOGE Caucus, issued the following statement after voting in favor of the rescissions package:
“After four years of reckless spending by the Biden administration, President Trump is right to request this cut in wasteful spending and Congress was right to pass it. This bill reclaims taxpayer dollars for hardworking North Dakotans and Americans, but this is only the beginning. Congress and the administration have a lot more work to do to restore accountability and fiscal sanity to Washington.”
This rescissions package cuts funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which funds National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The Trump administration’s request described the funds as being used to “subsidize a public media system that is politically biased and an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.”
While the CPB is legally mandated to be nonpolitical and unbiased, it has funded content celebrating irrevocable ‘gender transitions’ in minors, segments framing healthy eating and doorway sizes as forms of “fatphobia,” and children’s programming featuring drag queens. NPR has published stories on “genderqueer dinosaur enthusiasts,” “nonbinary deer,” and “hermaphrodite banana slugs,” while dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and pushing the discredited Russia-collusion narrative. In April 2024, Cramer led several of his colleagues in a letter to NPR CEO Katherine Maher, highlighting deep concerns regarding the network’s national leadership and calling for the enforcement of journalistic standards Americans deserve.
Importantly, these cuts do not impact emergency broadcast capabilities. North Dakota radio stations continue to provide critical emergency services, and all for-profit broadcasters are required by the FCC to maintain an Emergency Alert System (EAS) and typically employ their own meteorologists. FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS), and the Next Generation Warning System Grant Program (NGWS) also remain fully funded.
These rescissions also eliminate funding in foreign-aid accounts antithetical to American interests and outside the scope of Congressional intent. Taxpayer dollars have been allocated to projects such as promoting veganism in Zambia, funding pride parades in Lesotho, wind farms in Ukraine, DEIA contractors in Belarus, and gender diversity in Mexican street lighting. Other rescinded accounts supported “sedentary migrant” outreach in Colombia, reproductive health climate curricula, and social media mentorship in Eastern Europe—all at the expense of the American taxpayer. At the same time, the Senate bill provides guardrails to protect core Global Health Program funding —PEPFAR, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, and nutrition. It also protects the Countering PRC Influence Fund and reaffirms commitment to aid in the Middle East.