WASHINGTON — Alabama Republicans are backing President Donald Trump’s request to claw back $9.4 billion in already approved congressional spending to make the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts permanent.
The so-called rescissions package, sent to Congress Tuesday, would strip funding from foreign aid and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund NPR and PBS.
The request would roll back $8.3 billion in funding for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development. It would also take away $1.1 billion allocated for public radio and television.
U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, R-Huntsville, who introduced legislation to prohibit federal funding from NPR earlier this year, said the “money has got to come back.”
“This recession is a good situation to be dealing with because there’s a lot of savings that have been realized and what we’ve got to do is to be sure that money doesn’t drift out the door in a different direction,” Strong told Alabama Daily News.
Congress has 45 days to approve the request, and it only needs a simple majority in the Senate to pass. The House is expected to vote on the package next week.
Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, said he’ll be supporting the request and said Americans “want us to cut things.”
He also mentioned that he’s been supportive of public television in Alabama and said he would be open to supporting it in some capacity. Alabama Public Television receives about $3 million a year from federal funding or about 13% of its budget.
“I’d like to but, you know, if we can find a way to support Alabama Public Television, but you know, I know there’s a lot of other states out there that may not be like Alabama Public Television, so that’s what we have to deal with,” Aderholt told ADN.
Democrats are expected to be united against the request to slash federal funding. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, expressed her opposition to the request on social media.
“The rescissions package introduced yesterday would attack the free press, cut off lifesaving humanitarian aid, and harm our national security,” Sewell said on X. “Rest assured, I will be voting NO!”
The request cuts money for specific programs that support LGBT programs, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and funding for the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Birmingham, told Alabama Daily News Wednesday he hadn’t fully looked at the White House’s request yet but said clawing back the money is “something that we ought to be doing all the time.”
The current request could be just the start of the White House’s efforts to formally roll back federal funding through Congress, with more rescission packages possible.
Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, said in a post on X that the efforts to cut the already approved funding will “rein in the waste, fraud, and abuse we have seen in government agencies for too long.”
During the last Trump administration, the Senate rejected an attempt to rescind $15 million in unused government spending.
Editor’s note: Alex Angle also reports for Alabama Public Television’s Capitol Journal.
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