HYDE-SMITH VOTES TO CUT $9.0 BILLION FROM FEDERAL BUDGET
Senate Approves Budget Rescissions Package Sought by President Trump
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, early this morning voted for Senate passage of a budget rescissions bill (HR.4) to trim $9.0 billion from the federal budget, reductions sought by President Trump to stop wasteful spending in major foreign aid programs.
“I consider this vote a signal that we must get serious about stopping the unchecked, wasteful spending. Opponents complain about the rescissions process, but let’s get real. The hue and cry from Democrats against cutting to what amounts to about one-tenth of one percent of the federal budget tells everyone that they have no intention of using our constitutional power of the purse to take substantive actions to tackle waste, fraud, and abuse of the money hard-working taxpayers send to Washington,” Hyde-Smith said.
The Senate bill also honors a commitment secured by Hyde-Smith in June to preserve funding for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish at Mississippi State University, a program she described as “money well spent and a great program.”
The bulk of the rescissions package will affect U.S. foreign aid programs, though the Senate’s legislation preserves PEPFAR funding to combat HIV/AIDS globally, as well as the popular Food for Peace Program, which utilizes surplus U.S. agricultural commodities purchased from American farmers to prevent starvation around the world.
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