WASHINGTON — Alabama’s lawmakers voted with their parties last week in a U.S. House vote to rescind $9.4 billion in already approved funding for foreign aid and public media.
In a dramatic vote on the House floor, Republicans narrowly passed the White House’s rescissions package aimed at making some of the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts permanent. The vote was 214-212. Two Republicans switched their votes from ‘no’ to ‘yes’ on the House floor. Democrats were united in their opposition. The bill now heads to the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, was fully behind the bill that would take back $8.3 billion in funding for foreign aid, which includes money for international health programs.
“The people in my district, the people in Alabama, I had a call (they said) ‘please continue to cut spending, we’ve got to get the deficit under control and spending of the federal government under control,’” Moore told Alabama Daily News. “It’s much needed. I’m glad we finally got the first package and I’m sure there will be more down the road.”
The package also claws back $1.1 billion allocated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund PBS and NPR stations.
As the bill moved through the Rules Committee this week, Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, argued for preserving funding for Alabama Public Television, which receives some trickle-down funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“I would love to work with you to get funding for Alabama Public Television, because it has not been subject to these woke policies that some of the other states have, and therefore, we can work together on this,” Aderholt said in an exchange with a Democrat from Colorado.
Democrat Terri Sewell of Birmingham slammed the funding cuts after she voted against it Thursday. She argued rolling back the money would “do nothing to make life better for Americans.”
“Their latest bill defunds PBS and NPR, threatening educational programming for our children as well as independent journalism, local sports coverage and emergency alerts,” Sewell said in a statement. “It also directly undermines our national security by slashing programs that promote global peace and disease prevention.”
Rep. Dale Strong, R-Huntsville, said the rescissions package is a step in the right direction to curb “wasteful spending.”
“This is what you’ve got to do when you’ve got a $36 trillion debt,” Strong told ADN. “This country has got off the hook, spent money in places it shouldn’t have been spent.”
Congress has 45 days to act on the bill from when the White House sent the package to lawmakers on June 3. Some Senate Republicans have voiced skepticism about the cuts, but it only needs a simple majority in the upper chamber to pass.
Editor’s note: Alex Angle also reports for Alabama Public Television’s Capitol Journal.