The Senate Appropriations Committee led by Maine Sen. Susan Collins voted Thursday to reject a series of budget cuts proposed by President Trump to public health, educational and research programs.
But Republicans and Democrats disagreed on several aspects of the budget bills, including funding for public broadcasting and the Trump administration's plans for retrofitting a jumbo jet gifted to the White House from Qatar.
The administration had proposed cutting the budget for the National Institutes of Health by 40 percent. But the Senate Appropriations Committee voted, instead, to increase NIH's budget by $400 million next fiscal year — an increase of just under 1%. Senators also rejected steep cuts to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and included language in the bill to prevent the administration from changing how federal grants are paid out to research institutions.
The budget bills contain more than $1 trillion in discretionary spending for defense, health and human services, education and workforce programs. The House and Senate appropriations committees, which decide how federal dollars are spent, are currently working on their respective spending bills but would have to reconcile any differences.
Collins, a Republican, also said the committee bill would also restore funding for the administration of Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, and the Job Corps training program. The administration had proposed eliminating both programs, prompting strong bipartisan pushback from lawmakers.
"It also maintains funding for TRIO, a program that I know from the experience in my state has made an incredible difference in the opportunities provided for many low-income and first-generation students seeking higher education," Collins said during the committee meeting.
But Democrats criticized the bill for not including funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports local PBS and NPR member stations. Two weeks ago, Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who also serves on the Appropriations Committee, were the only two Republicans to oppose clawing back $1 billion in funding for public broadcasting in the current budget.
Democrats also accused the president and Russ Vought, his director of the Office of Management of Budget, of attempting to undercut the "power of the purse" reserved to Congress by the constitution.
"We cannot afford to go down the path that Trump and Russ Vought want to push us down," said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top-ranking Democrat on the committee. "Their vision is one where this committee becomes less bipartisan and less powerful, where the president and the OMB director call the shots and some Republicans in Congress spend their time cutting what they are told to cut, even at the expense of their own constituents."
