Republican senators spent their weekly lunch Wednesday discussing tweaks they want to make to the White House’s request to claw back $9.4 billion in congressionally approved funding.
Broad pushback inside the Senate GOP conference against cutting public media and global health funds, as described by several attendees, is the latest sign Republicans will have to make changes to the administration’s rescissions package if they hope to pass it. International climate and disaster recovery dollars are also on the chopping block.
“Just by listening to the conversations — one, members still need to understand it better,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said in a brief interview after the closed-door Republican lunch. He added, “I think we will get it passed, but in all likelihood it will be modified.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, “I just heard a lot of concerns raised in this meeting just now. People have a lot of stuff they want changed.”
