Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine pressed Trump administration officials on Wednesday about proposals to cut more than $9 billion from international aid and public broadcasting programs.
Collins presided over a nearly three-hour hearing during which Democrats and Republicans peppered President Donald Trump's top budget official, Russell Vought, with stinging questions about plans to claw back the $9.4 billion that has already been approved by Congress. The Republican-controlled House narrowly approved the so-called "rescission package" earlier this month. But the proposal is facing tougher scrutiny in the Senate.
Collins, who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, raised particular concerns about a proposal to claw back $400 million from a program to treat and prevent HIV and AIDS around the world. Collins said the program, started by President George W. Bush, has been credited with saving more than 26 million lives around the world.
"Cutting funding now, funding that is aimed at preventing disease transmission, would be extraordinarily ill-advised and short sighted," Collins said.
Collins also said the administration's rescission package lacked specifics — for instance, on whether global health campaigns against polio and malaria would be cut. At one point, Collins held up samples of a food supplement and multivitamin that the U.S. has distributed to prevent malnutrition and premature deaths among mothers and newborns.
"We know that these prenatal vitamins have allowed impoverished mothers in Africa to safely deliver healthy children," Collins said. "These are not only the right thing to do for humanitarian reasons, but they are incredible instruments of soft power."
Vought responded that such food supplements aren't affected. But Collins countered that she knows about stockpiles in warehouses that are now at risk of expiring because the administration hasn't awarded the funding to distribute them.
Collins and other bipartisan members of the committee also expressed concerns about a proposal to cut more than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund PBS and NPR stations, including Maine Public.
Vought faced stronger criticism from Democrats on the committee, who accused the administration of putting lives in the U.S. and around the globe at risk by pursuing cuts based on a political ideology. He responded by telling lawmakers that the rescission package is merely aiming to codify the cost-cutting efforts from the Department of Government Efficiency, which was until recently was led by billionaire Elon Musk.
"This package reflects the Trump administration's steadfast commitment to cutting wasteful federal spending antithetical to American interests and correcting our fiscal trajectory," Vought said.
