This afternoon, we’ll find out how good a salesman OMB Director Russ Vought really is.
Vought has spent the last few months sticking his finger in the eyes of congressional appropriators by freezing funding, dismissing their calls for more FY 2026 budget details and floating the controversial use of “pocket rescissions.”
Now, Vought will have to convince skeptical Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee to vote for the House-passed $9.4 billion rescissions package crafted by the Trump administration. He’ll appear before the panel at 2:30 p.m. today.
Several GOP appropriators have expressed concerns about the proposed cuts to public broadcasting and PEPFAR, a successful HIV/AIDS prevention program created under the George W. Bush administration.
Vought will need at least 51 senators to approve the rescissions package. He doesn’t have the support right now.
The process. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has tasked the Appropriations panel with processing the rescissions bill before it heads to the floor, but it’s unclear if it will be amended in committee or on the floor. The floor is more likely, GOP senators said.
Either way, it’ll need to be changed in order to pass. On top of that, the Senate will be operating under a tight timeline. The bill needs to reach President Donald Trump’s desk by July 18 or the money will be spent as Congress dictated.
Most of the rescissions cover foreign aid, as well as more than $1 billion approved for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund PBS and NPR.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Vought will need to provide a “justification” for the proposed rescissions. Collins has been clear that she opposes the cuts to PEPFAR.
But Collins isn’t Vought’s only problem on the panel. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) has previously pushed back on some of the administration’s USAID cuts. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) aren’t happy with the plan to kill funding for public broadcasting.
Rounds said he plans to ask Vought about his “logic” for these cuts.
“Step by step, we’ll work our way through it and then we’ll see what the outcome is,” Rounds said.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the former longtime GOP leader, is also someone to watch. McConnell has long supported foreign aid programs and global health funding, especially PEPFAR. McConnell is a defense hawk too — and the panel is stacked with them.
The big picture. Whether Vought can convince enough GOP senators to vote for the rescissions package will have broader implications for the annual appropriations process.
Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the committee, has said it would be nearly impossible for a bipartisan FY2026 funding deal if Republicans approve this rescissions measure.
Murray plans to highlight how Vought has undermined Congress’ power of the purse, according to Murray’s prepared remarks. The concern for Democrats is that Vought will send more rescissions packages if Republicans enact the current one — which Vought has said he would do.
“I worry at a time when we should be coming together to ensure the safety, economic growth, and security of this country — instead, we will race forward with rescission package after rescission package,” Murray says in her written remarks.
