House Rescissions Seen as a Make-Or-Break Chance to Codify DOGE

House Republicans on Thursday will face perhaps the greatest test yet of whether they mean business about decreasing the size of the federal government.

The House Republican Conference will vote on a legislative package to cut funding from foreign aid, as well as from the publicly funded National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 

According to the White House and House leadership, this is meant to be the first of a number of such packages if it passes.

Whether or not Congress can pass the rescissions package—a cost-cutting piece of legislation that requires a simple majority in both chambers—will be a major test of Republicans’ credibility as budget-cutters.

“This rescissions package is a strong first step toward advancing [the Department of Government Efficiency’s] mission and reining in reckless spending,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told The Daily Signal in a statement. 

“President Trump ran on rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, and House Republicans are committed to getting it done,” he said.

USAID, which falls under the purview of the State Department, was an early target of the Trump administration’s restructuring of the federal government.

 NPR and PBS were similarly criticized by House Republicans in early hearings of the House Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee for perceived bias.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told The Daily Signal in a statement that he wholeheartedly backs the package.

“Taxpayers should not be on the hook for having to pay for liberal-biased PBS and NPR to hire more leftist journalists. Nor should they be forced to pay millions of dollars to advance lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer programs across the globe,” he said.

The package would cut spending such as “$6 million for Net Zero Cities” in Mexico and “$6 million for supporting media organizations and civic life of Palestinians,” according to a press release from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office.

This is seen as a make-or-break opportunity for Republicans to formally cut the canceled grants that fired up Trump’s base so much in the early days of the administration.

Asked if he thought Republicans would lose credibility if the bill failed, Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., told The Daily Signal, “I most definitely do.”

He added, “I find that hard to believe and I don’t know of any Republicans right now [who are opposed]. I hear a rumor that there may be some opposed to this. I can’t imagine any Republican that would vote against this rescissions package because we all ran on these things.”

Gosar similarly characterized it as a crucial vote.

“Voters last November handed President Trump a broad mandate to reduce the size of the federal government, and they damn well expect Congress to pass this legislation that keeps President Trump’s promise, or they will pay dearly next November,” he said.

Of course, Republicans should not expect any Democrats to help pass this package.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., when asked Wednesday if any Democrats would back it, replied, “I think there’s going to be strong Democratic opposition here in the House. We’re going to work hard to kill the legislation here.” He contended that the cuts to USAID would harm American interests abroad.

Jeffries added that the bill was “assaulting Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Elmo and all of the people connected to ‘Sesame Street.’”

“That’s extraordinary. I mean, who are these people?” he said.

“Sesame Street,” a children’s show, has aired on PBS since 1970.

Harris, however, said that Jeffries’ characterization of the cuts as a killing blow to USAID, PBS, and NPR is incorrect. He suggested that PBS and NPR should be able to continue operating without federal funding, and that USAID’s most essential work would be reformed and reorganized.

“My understanding is that these are programs within USAID, but they’ve also sent some other programs of USAID to the Department of State and Marco Rubio, and their department is going to be looking after that,” he said.

“We don’t want to cut services out to people. We want to cut the bureaucracy out,” Harris added. “This is really the first time in nearly 100 years that the agencies are having a good look inside and under the hood.”

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