White House Eyes Taking Back $9.4 Billion

The White House will send Congress a request to claw back $9.4 billion in previously appropriated funds to public media and foreign aid items. 

A spokesperson for the Office of Budget and Management (OMB) confirmed in a statement to The Epoch Times that the long-expected rescissions package would be sent to Congress for consideration on June 3. 

In Washington parlance, a “rescissions package” refers to a request by the president for Congress to withdraw funding previously delegated by the legislature for specific ends. Such packages are handled under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which limits the president’s ability to unilaterally cancel funding appropriated by Congress. 

The majority of the forthcoming rescissions package has to do with foreign aid, with the remainder targeting federally funded media outlets. They are meant to codify many of the cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

$8.3 billion of the amount cut would be cut from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the African Development Foundation. The remaining cuts, approximately $1.1 billion, would be rescinded from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees state-funded media like NPR and PBS. 

Since taking office, President Donald Trump’s administration has targeted both government agencies for downsizing, with some efforts to end USAID entirely and absorb the agency into the U.S. State Department beginning as early as February. 

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its subsidiaries, meanwhile, have been accused of “biased and partisan news coverage” by the administration. 

On May 1, Trump signed an executive order that would direct the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to end all direct funding for the news outlets and ensure that “licensees and permittees of public radio and television stations … do not use federal funds for NPR and PBS.”

The OMB spokesperson raised concerns about the leadership at NPR and PBS in their statement to The Epoch Times, citing NPR CEO Katherine Maher’s description of Trump as a “fascist” and “deranged racist.” 

The spokesperson also referenced programming on PBS related to transgender issues, including “Real Boy,” a program about a trans teen, and “Our League,” a program about a trans woman returning to her hometown.

The 1974 impoundment law prohibits the president from ending funding without the approval of Congress. When the White House sends the package to the Capitol, lawmakers will have 45 days to approve or reject the cuts. 

This process is handled by a simple majority vote of both chambers, as laid out in the Impoundment Control Act. That means that if Republicans broadly agree with the proposed cuts, they won’t need Democrats’ help to approve them. 

The White House shared details of the forthcoming cuts with The Epoch Times. 

At $1.1 billion, the requested funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—whose budget sat at $535 million in 2024—would effectively dismantle PBS and NPR. The cuts would strip most or the entirety of the federal government’s support for these outlets, which could send them scrambling to secure outside funding if Congress approves the cuts.

The bulk of the cuts, however, stem from USAID and related foreign aid initiatives. 

Around $2.24 million of these cuts would affect programs intended to promote LGBT programs in the Caribbean, the Western Balkans, Uganda, and elsewhere. 

Several environmental policy items are also included: $5 million for “green transportation and logistics,” $500,000 for electric busses in Rwanda, $6 million for “Net Zero Cities” in Mexico, $2.5 million to teach young children how to make environmentally friendly “reproductive health” decisions, and $614,700 for climate adaptation, including growing coral reefs in the Caribbean. 

Several other six-figure budget items are included in the package: $1 million for voter ID in Haiti, $4 million for “legume systems research,” $3 million for Iraqi Sesame Street, $4 million for “sedentary migrants” in Colombia, $6 million for supporting media organizations and civic life in Palestine, and $1.2 million for the “Afrobarometer public opinion survey.”

The White House also requested the rescission of around $9 million in funding from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. 

That includes $3 million for circumcisions and contraceptive measures in Zambia, $5.1 million for strengthening LGBT movements globally, and $833,000 to assist transgender people, sex workers, clients, and “sexual networks” in Nepal. 

It will ultimately be up to Congress to approve or deny these requests.

—Joseph Lord and Emel Akan

BOOKMARKS

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—Stacy Robinson