00:00Good afternoon, everybody. This week, as you know, is the rescissions bill is the legislation that's going to be on the floor, at least we hope it's going to be on the floor later today. We're going to have a couple of procedural votes and we'll see how those come out.
00:18Well, one thing I can tell you in the Trump administration is that there has been a renewed commitment to reducing spending. It's actually become in favor to try and find ways to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. And I think that was part of his mandate coming out of this election. It's something that he and his administration committed to do. We have partnered with him on the one big, beautiful bill with the biggest spending reduction in history on the mandatory side of the equation.
00:47The rescissions bill this week deals with discretionary spending, the other part of the federal budget. And I'm hopeful that we'll have the opportunity to get on that bill and to do something meaningful when it comes to reducing the size and scope of the federal government and particularly in areas of our government where we know there is waste, fraud and abuse.
01:05Now, the Democrats have suggested that they would shut the government down over us taking up rescission, that somehow that's going to step on the normal appropriations process.
01:15And I guess what I would point out is that rescissions have been a part of the process around here for a long time, not only in the annual appropriations process, but both administrations have in the past submitted rescissions packages to the Congress.
01:27And I would also remind people that what we're talking about here is one-tenth of one percent of all federal spending. One-tenth of one percent of all federal spending.
01:37That's one-thousandth of the federal budget that's included in this rescission package.
01:42And so I hope we have the votes to get on this bill later today and to have an opportunity for people to offer amendments if they see things that they want to, they think they can fix or modify in the legislation.
01:54That's always an opportunity that people have when the bill comes to the floor.
01:57But clearly, this is something that all of us believe is a priority.
02:02When you've got a $36 trillion debt, we have to do something to get spending under control.
02:07Couple that with policies like we had in the one big, beautiful bill that create growth in the economy, expand the economy, create those better-paying jobs, and generate more government revenue.
02:17Couple that with spending restraint, both on the mandatory side and the discretionary side.
02:22And we can start to get this thing back into balance, which is where it needs to be if we're going to do anything meaningful to ensure that we have a better and brighter future for future generations of Americans.
02:32So that's the subject for today.
02:34And obviously, we'll have an opportunity to see where the votes are tonight.
02:38Question?
02:38Leader, by changing the scope of this and putting the AIDS money back in, was that necessary to get votes, to get this to pass the Senate?
02:48And what consternation does that cause across the building in the House by changing this and reducing the size of the overall package?
02:54There was a lot of interest among our members in doing something on the PEPFAR issue.
03:01And so that's reflected in the substitute.
03:03And we hope that if we can get this across the finish line in the Senate, that the House would accept that one small modification.
03:12That ends up making the package still about a $9 billion rescissions package, a little less than what was sent over from the House.
03:19But nonetheless, a significant down payment on getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse in our government.
03:24Was that pre-baked with Johnson?
03:25Well, I wouldn't say anything's pre-baked, but obviously, it's something that we've been working closely with the administration on.
03:32And my assumption is that the level of coordination that we've had between the House and the Senate, that they would take up.
03:38You're still talking about a $9 billion rescissions package, even with that small modification.
03:43Leader, clearly, here we go.
03:44Senator Brown said that he secured a grant proposal for a local public radio in the state, too.
03:52How exactly is that going to work?
03:54Do you have to reframe the, or it's not through an amendment process?
03:59Well, it's actually, it's a solution that they, he developed in working with the White House, with OMB,
04:07that allows them to reprogram some funding that would address the 28 stations around the country
04:12that receive funding through CPB that are on our Native American reservations.
04:18So it was an individual thing that he worked out.
04:20Can you confirm that, it's not like he does that that would come out,
04:23$400 million cut is out in the substitute.
04:27Is that right?
04:29That's in the substitute.
04:31And then the $500 million cut in global health is different, but it's still in there.
04:36How do you respond to global health advocates who say,
04:38that's still a problem that's affecting maternal health, that's affecting people around the world?
04:42Well, that actually, I think what we just heard from the director of the OMB,
04:46that particular account, I don't think is impacted by this.
04:52There is a, and there's a particular program that a lot of our members have interest in, the GAVI program.
04:56And we were reassured by the OMB director that that would not be affected in this process.
05:02But I think it's fair to say that all these accounts and a lot of the funding
05:08for some of these programs is being scrutinized and reviewed, and a lot of this came out of the DOGE process.
05:13A lot of these recommendations now are an implementation of what DOGE found in areas of the budget
05:18that they thought we could achieve savings, but not undermine the critical mission aspects of a lot of these,
05:25what some of these programs do.
05:27So it's a process they've been going through.
05:29And obviously, we had a chance to hear directly from the OMB director of the rest of the vote today
05:33to talk more specifically about some of the individual components of what they're proposing.
05:39And we'll see where our members are on it.
05:40We're going to have an opportunity to have that vote tonight.
05:43The appropriations process in the House and Senate is a little bit spelled out at this point.
05:48Do you expect a continuing resolution at this point in September?
05:51Well, I would like to have a normal appropriations process.
05:55I mean, the Democrats have signaled they don't want one.
05:57I mean, the Democrats have made it very clear that they are already countenancing the idea of a government shutdown,
06:03which I think is absolutely – I have no idea how that is helpful to them or to anybody.
06:10But that being the case, if we can get some cooperation, the committees, the appropriations committee,
06:15we've got some members here.
06:17Senator Capito is a member of the committee, have been marking up the bills,
06:20and they've got a couple of them that have come out.
06:22I think another one is going to come out later this week.
06:24And I would like to see us have the opportunity to put some of those bills on the floor of the United States Senate
06:29and let's see if the Democrats want to work with us, if we want to have a regular appropriations process.
06:34Remember, one of the reasons we had a CR in April is because the Democrat leader and the Democrats
06:40didn't put a single appropriations committee, a past bill on the floor last year,
06:45even though 11 of the 12 had come out of the committee.
06:48So this is a – this would be a new thing, and we'll have to exercise some muscle memory around here
06:54to actually have appropriation bills on the floor.
06:57But my intent is if the committee will succeed in getting some of those bills reported out,
07:02that we would put some of them together, hopefully, and get a bill on the floor for consideration
07:06and hopefully have Democrat support to try and move the appropriations process in a way that it hasn't now
07:12for the past several years here in the Senate.
07:14Are you confident that you're going to have the votes?
