A $9 billion rescissions package supported by President Donald Trump passed the Senate on Thursday morning in a mostly party-line 51-48 vote. Senators Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted no, but every other Republican senator, including Alabama Senators Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, voted to pass the spending cuts.
The vast majority of the $9 billion in rescissions are cuts to America’s foreign aid spending. While a $400 million cut to PEPFAR—the anti-HIV/AIDS program started by President George W. Bush, which has saved millions of lives—was removed from the bill after intra-Republican dissent, almost $8 billion of the rescissions would still be targeting America’s foreign aid programs.
Before the package was voted on, Senator Adam Schiff, D-California, proposed an amendment to exclude funding for anti-disease programs from the rescissions. The amendment failed. Senator Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, proposed a similar amendment to protect funding for the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF.
Founded after World War II to protect children and their rights, UNICEF helps educate, immunize, feed and provide clean water for children in developing and war-torn countries. H.R. 5, if signed into law, would cut $142 million in U.S. funding for the organization, including a $5 million contribution to a program combatting the practice of female genital mutilation.
“We will not be able to provide needed services next year if our FY25 U.S. contribution is rescinded and too many children will suffer or die as a result,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell wrote in a letter to Senator Chris Coons, D-Delaware, earlier this week.
In Sudan, presently wracked by civil war and famine, UNICEF is currently treating thousands of children for severe acute malnutrition every month, screening hundreds of thousands more, and delivering millions of vaccinations. UNICEF is also treating hundreds of thousands of children in Yemen for severe acute malnutrition every year, in addition to many, many children in other famine hotspots.
Both Tuberville and Britt voted against Ossoff’s amendment to protect funding for UNICEF, along with 49 other Senate Republicans.
“It is not the American taxpayers’ job to take care of the entire world. While that’s a nice idea, it has never worked in any country that has tried it,” Tuberville wrote in a statement provided to APR.
“The reality is far-left organizations like UNICEF have abused taxpayer dollars for years,” he continued. “No wonder Sen. Ossoff tried to save UNICEF – they are just as woke as he is. American tax dollars should go to building bridges and roads, improving education, and getting homeless people off the streets in the U.S., not indoctrinating kids about LGBTQ+ in Uganda.”
In 2023, Uganda passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which criminalized homosexuality. Under the law, Ugandans can be sentenced to life in prison for engaging in consensual sexual relations with someone of the same sex and could even receive the death penalty for so-called “aggravated homosexuality.”
While some international organizations that receive federal funding have sought to promote the human rights of LGBTQ people in Uganda, UNICEF does not appear to be involved with this type of campaign. There is no mention of any such activity in UNICEF Uganda’s most recent annual report.
Instead, the largest priority for UNICEF Uganda by dollars spent is ensuring that “every child can survive and thrive,” which includes funding for programs like producing egg powder and providing Vitamin A pills for malnourished children.
Globally, UNICEF’s biggest priority is still trying to let every child “survive and thrive.” The single best funded result area is “strengthening primary health care and high-impact health interventions,” with a budget of $429 million for 2025.
Britt also defended her vote for H.R. 5 in a statement to APR and other news outlets. “As a member of the Senate DOGE Caucus, I’m proud to support President Trump’s goal of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse,” she wrote.
“Alabamians don’t want to foot the bill for $18 million to improve gender diversity in the Mexican street lighting industry, $833,000 for services for ‘transgender people, sex workers and their clients and sexual networks’ in Nepal, or leftwing propaganda masquerading as news on NPR,” Britt continued. “That’s why I voted for this targeted rescissions package.”
In a statement received Friday morning, Senator Britt’s office emphasized that the final package protected funding for global health “programs related to maternal health, malaria, tuberculosis and nutrition” as well as food aid programs.
“In addition to the many misuses of taxpayer dollars, Senator Britt also voted against sending taxpayer dollars to fund ‘international family planning,’ which includes abortions, that programs in USAID provide,” the statement continued. “These targeted cuts will help to ensure these programs eliminate partisan ideology, that many Americans don’t agree with, and instead refocus on delivering help and support to those who need it.”
Tuberville issued another statement earlier this week specifically supporting the rescission package’s total repeal of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 2024, the CPB gave $5.4 million to public radio and television stations in Alabama, including a grant to help Alabama Public Television update its emergency alert capabilities.
“I am 100 percent supportive of the President’s rescissions package, which would claw back taxpayer funding from NPR and PBS,” Tuberville wrote. “News outlets who claim to be unbiased should report the news objectively. But it’s clear that both NPR and PBS see themselves as an arm of the Democrat party bought and paid for by American taxpayers.”
He specifically pointed to an ad ran by a Kansas PBS affiliate last month telling watchers to ask their senators to vote against cutting funding for public media and said the government must “stop funding woke media outlets who are hellbent on spewing anti-American propaganda.”
One poll conducted on behalf of NPR earlier this month found 66 percent of Americans support funding for public radio. A similar survey of 1,000 likely voters found 53 percent opposed ending federal funding for public media.
Public media “delivers early learning resources to families, life-saving emergency alerts to communities, and trusted local and national programming to keep citizens connected and informed,” Corporation for Public Broadcasting CEO Patricia Harrison stated in a recent press release.
The rescissions package was passed by the House again just after midnight in a 216-213 vote. It now awaits President Trump’s signature.
