A Senate amendment to the Trump administration’s rescissions package that has the White House’s blessing will include protections for some U.S. food aid operations.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought met with Senate Republicans on Tuesday where they discussed a Senate proposal to scale back a House-passed package that would codify Department of Government Efficiency-inspired spending cuts. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Vought emerged from the meeting touting a substitute amendment that both sides could get on board with.
Within that substitute amendment – which would slightly reduce the value of the spending cuts from $9.4 billion in the House-passed version to $9 billion, Thune and Vought said – is language to protect funding for food aid operations.
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., told Agri-Pulse that he had been concerned that the proposed funding cuts, which included $2.5 billion for development assistance, could hobble the Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole food programs.
The programs would receive funding under a FY2026 appropriations bill that advanced out of the ag committee last week. But Moran said he had been concerned that spending cuts could render them ineffective.
“There is agreed-upon language that would be included in a manager's package that says nothing will be rescinded that interferes with the distribution and operation of those two food aid programs,” Moran said.
The protections, Moran added, are important from both a moral and economic perspective.
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“I'm pleased by that from a moral and national security point of view, but particularly as well for farmers, who have a noble profession feeding a hungry world,” Moran told Agri-Pulse.
The amendment removed proposed spending cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which had rankled GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski. Vought told Agri-Pulse and other reporters after the Tuesday meeting that the White House is “fine” with PEPFAR’s omission.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said that his concerns with the rescissions bill had also been addressed in a side deal with the White House. Rounds had been concerned that rural Native American radio stations would lose funding and be forced to close, but he said administration officials offered a solution on Monday that would see funding reallocated from elsewhere to keep them alive.
“There’s money that’s been around for a long time that we can purpose for what is needed,” Vought said.
Thune told reporters after the meeting that he still plans to hold a procedural vote on the package on Tuesday, which would tee up a marathon vote on Wednesday when the final amendment would be offered.
If the amendment passes, it would send the bill back to the House for a vote before Friday’s deadline – when the funds must be released.
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