WH Is Ignoring Senate GOP’s Requests for Details on DOGE Cuts It Wants Congress to Swallow

Senate Republicans barely advanced President Donald Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package into debate time late Tuesday night, following two tight procedural votes that required Vice President JD Vance’s presence to tie-break.

Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) broke with the Senate Republican caucus and opposed both of the procedural votes, citing concerns about the bill — and, apparently, a lack of clarity from the White House on where exactly the cuts will come from. 

Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has perhaps been the most vocal critic of the rescissions package — a White House attempt to legalize many of the Department of Government Efficiency’s lawless cuts to foreign aid months after they were made.  The bill also slashes funding for public broadcasting and will decimate small radio and television stations. 

The Maine Republican has been speaking out, specifically, against the cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — a President George W. Bush-era global HIV and AIDS prevention program — for weeks.

In an attempt to sway Collins and other wary Republicans, the White House and Trump’s Office of Management and Budget agreed to remove a $400 million cut to PEPFAR out of the package Tuesday afternoon.

But that is not the only issue that has been raised by Collins and some of the other top appropriators. Collins has also been vocal about OMB’s refusal to provide a detailed breakdown of how the proposed cuts will be implemented. She even reached out to the OMB and asked for details on the cuts last week, apparently, to no avail.

“The rescissions package has a big problem — nobody really knows what program reductions are in it,” Collins said in a Tuesday statement following her “no” vote on the first procedural vote. “That isn’t because we haven’t had time to review the bill. Instead, the problem is that OMB has never provided the details that would normally be part of this process.”

Collins said she was “pleased” with the administration’s decision to protect PEPFAR but added the “excessive cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would harm local programming and the accessibility to popular programs.”

“I recognize the need to reduce excessive spending and I have supported rescissions in our appropriations bills many times, including the 70 rescissions that were included in the year-long funding bill that we are currently operating under,” Collins continued. “But to carry out our Constitutional responsibility, we should know exactly what programs are affected and the consequences of the rescissions.”

McConnell, who will be retiring at the end of his term, also said OMB’s lack of clarity on where the cuts will come from is concerning.

“OMB is the problem,” McConnell told reporters on his “no” vote, per Punchbowl. “They won’t tell us how they’re going to apply the cuts.”

The Senate is expected to finish up debate time and start the vote-a-rama for the rescissions package Wednesday afternoon. Those opposed to the package in its current form may offer amendments to change portions of the bill, specifically to protect the funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

If the bill passes the Senate, it will go back to the House so the lower chamber can vote on the amended version. 

Congress has until July 18 to approve the rescissions package. If they can’t pass the bill by Friday, the 45-day clock on the rescissions request will expire and the White House will have to spend the funds as they were initially appropriated.