With President Donald Trump's massive tax cut and Medicaid evisceration bill having passed, Republicans have turned to a smaller but still controversial rescissions package he is also demanding that includes huge cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting.
And Trump is watching the GOP for signs of defection, Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday.
This comes following reports last week that the bill could be sent through a complicated and painful amendment process, rather than pass in the exact form Trump has proposed it.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) told Punchbowl that "he’s confident that a rescissions bill will ultimately pass in part because the president made it clear that this is a priority for him," adding that, “It’s part of the core agenda [for Trump] — you have nominations, you have reconciliation, you have rescissions.”
Put another way, one GOP senator said, Trump is "keeping score" of who might be standing in his way as the debate continues.
But there are more complications this time. For one thing, the GOP needs Democratic votes to avert a shutdown, giving the opposition potential leverage.
A more immediate issue for Republicans is that not everyone is on board with the foreign aid cuts, with some wanting more answers on just what programs will be eliminated. "These concerns are particularly acute for Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the Senate Appropriations Committee chair. Last week, Collins asked OMB for details on how the proposed cuts will be implemented, especially on the foreign aid side. Other Republicans, including Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), spoke up in support of Collins’ request at a closed-door lunch."
So far, the White House has not responded to these concerns, the report noted.
“One frustration that many of us share is that we do not, still, have detailed information on many of the accounts. And we need that in order to make a decision,” Collins told reporters, though she stopped short of making any definitive decision on whether she would vote to advance the package in committee.
