US House to vote on bill to cut funding for foreign aid, public broadcasting

Washington, July 18 (IANS) The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on a bill to cut funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting after the Senate passed it.

The Senate approved the bill early Thursday, which will roll back $9 billion Congress had allocated to foreign aid and public broadcasting, Xinhua news agency reported.

With a voting result of 51-48, the bill was opposed by every Democrat in the Senate, along with two GOP senators.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the bill is a small but an important "step toward fiscal sanity."

The bill will slash $1.1 billion meant for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. US President Donald Trump and conservatives have blasted the corporation's two channels, National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, as biased in favor of the left. Moreover, the GOP has deemed the channels as an unnecessary expense to taxpayers.

"My Democrat colleagues may not want to acknowledge it, but we have a serious spending problem in this country," Thune said Tuesday. "And the very least we can do in response is to target some of the egregious misuses of taxpayer dollars that we are addressing today in this bill."

Two Senate Republicans voted against the package.

"You don't need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting," said Lisa Murkowski, one of the two Republicans who voted against the bill.

The package also slashed funding for some foreign development programs.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer blasted the legislation and accused the White House of usurping Congress's legally mandated role of being in charge of federal spending.

"Today, Senate Republicans turn this chamber into a subservient rubber stamp for the executive, at the behest of Donald Trump," he said.

--IANS

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