By Lindsay Wise, Jasmine Li and Ken Thomas

WASHINGTON -- President Trump is threatening to withhold his endorsement from any Republican senators who oppose the White House's $9.4 billion package of DOGE cuts, turning a planned vote next week into an explicit loyalty test and setting up a showdown between the Senate and the White House.

Trump's effort to tamp down dissent came after some Republicans -- including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska -- said they wanted to adjust the package to salvage federal funding for AIDS treatments in Africa and public broadcasting.

"It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Rescissions Bill, " Trump said on Truth Social late Thursday, stressing his desire to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that distributes funds to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. "Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement."

The proposal would codify some spending cuts made by the Trump administration as part of its Department of Government Efficiency push, effectively asking lawmakers to reverse spending they previously voted into law. The pressure campaign marks the latest effort by the president to impose his will on the GOP-controlled Congress.

The package, which will expire July 18 if Congress doesn't act, would rescind $8.3 billion from foreign-aid programs, including money from winding down USAID and clawing back $400 million from the Pepfar HIV/AIDS relief program.

It would also cancel $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Trump previously issued an executive order ending funding for the corporation, citing what he said was liberal bias at NPR and PBS. The organizations filed suits to try to block that order.

The proposed cancellations to the Pepfar budget account for 8% of its fiscal year 2025 appropriations, a spokeswoman for the White House Office of Management and Budget said. The $1.1 billion cut to the CPB represents the entirety of its federal appropriations for fiscal 2025 and 2026.

The matter is coming to a head just about a week after Trump signed into law his sprawling tax bill, which reduces spending on Medicaid and other programs while extending existing tax cuts and introducing new ones.

"Every single day, I've heard my Republican colleagues talking about the need to reduce spending," said Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.). "This is gut-check time for my Republican colleagues. They either believe in reducing spending or they don't."

The rescissions package passed the House last month by a 214-212 vote, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in opposition. Several House Republicans raised concerns about the impact on rural public media stations and AIDS prevention, as well as the precedent it would set for Congress ceding the power of the purse to the executive branch. The last time Congress approved a rescissions package proposed by the White House was for fiscal 1999.

Trump's package must now pass the Senate, which Republicans control 53-47, before heading to Trump's desk for his signature. If the Senate makes changes to the House-passed version, the House will have to pass it again before the deadline.

Collins, chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has focused on defending the Pepfar program created by former President George W. Bush. "Pepfar has an amazing set of accomplishments," she said, crediting the program with saving 26 million lives and preventing millions of infants from being born with HIV.

Murkowski said she is a "strong supporter" of the CPB and believes the global health programs are important.

Both Murkowski and Collins are moderates who have regularly broken with Trump, and it wasn't clear his threats would have any impact on them. Collins is up for re-election next year and Murkowski in 2028. Trump lost Maine last year to Kamala Harris and Murkowski has a record of winning in her state even without the endorsement of the Alaska Republican Party, thanks to independent and Democratic voters.

The president would need to limit other potential defections.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R., S.D.), who faces re-election next year, said he is opposed to rescissions he said would devastate Native American public-radio stations in his state. The OMB, which proposed the rescissions, "has agreed to work with us," Rounds said, "and now we're in that process of finding the appropriate path forward where they do not lose their funding."

He said a carve-out or workaround is under discussion to help preserve funding for the stations.

A Trump administration official said White House budget director Russ Vought and the administration have worked extensively with Collins and members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on the package. The official noted the rescission preserves nearly $10 billion for Pepfar and said the proposed cuts don't affect any lifesaving treatments provided by it.

The administration has other tools at its disposal if the Senate declines to act, the official said without providing specifics.

Vought has floated a controversial process called pocket rescissions. These involve sending a request to Congress shortly before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30 to effectively force the cuts through by not giving lawmakers a chance to act on them. Some watchdogs and lawmakers have called the maneuver a violation of the Impoundment Control Act and Congress's power over appropriations.

Write to Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com, Jasmine Li at jasmine.li@wsj.com and Ken Thomas at ken.thomas@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 11, 2025 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)

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