Senators began voting Wednesday on amendments to a large foreign aid and public broadcasting rescissions package even as some Republicans acknowledged their discomfort with how the Trump administration might implement the funding cancellations.
The $9.4 billion rescissions package is expected to be modified with a GOP-backed substitute amendment that would strip out a $400 million rescission to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a popular anti-HIV program, and bar funding clawbacks for food assistance and some country-specific grants.
The “vote-a-rama” kicked off Wednesday with the defeat, 49-50, of an amendment by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., to delete a rescission of $496 million from the international disaster assistance account.
