The U.S. House of Representatives took significant steps in achieving DOGE-related promises to cut waste, fraud, and abuse of federal dollars with the passage of H.R. 4 – the Rescissions Act of 2025. The package claws back $9.4 billion in federal funding appropriated to programs supporting initiatives like Iraqi Sesame Street, Palestinian media organizations, and more.

Rescissions is another step in the federal budgeting process that has dominated D.C. conversations these past few months. While the infamous “reconciliation” process deals with tax/spending legislation, rescissions cut back spending that has already been approved by Congress. In this case, it relieves taxpayers from funding the previous administration’s waste. These requests come directly from the President. Similar to the reconciliation process, rescissions only require a simple majority in the Senate, rather than the standard 60 vote threshold.

This is the first of President Trump’s possible rescission requests, and it primarily focuses on defunding National Public Radio (NPR), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). These organizations and programs have been hijacked by leftist ideals, operating as taxpayer funded extensions to radical leftist ideology.

For example, NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher tweeted that President Trump is “a fascist and a deranged racist sociopath.” Congressman Tom Tiffany cited several of her organization’s ideologically-inspired headlines including “What ‘Queer Ducks’ Can Teach Teenagers About Sexuality in the Animal Kingdom” and “Manny Loves Cayenne, Plus 5 Facts About Queer Animals for Valentines Days” as tax-payer funded propaganda.  

NPR receives federal funding via the Corporations for Public Broadcasting (CPB) who will lose all $535,000,000 of its funding in the rescission cuts. The request notes these funds “subsidize a public media system that is politically biased and an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.” PBS is also set to lose public funding under the CPB cuts.

Similar to NPR, PBS has faced severe scrutiny for its use of public tax dollars, promoting radical agendas, and blatantly biased media. The organization has produced films about a sex change on minors, the case for reparations, and more.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York 8^th) quickly jumped to their defense, bringing an Elmo puppet to the House floor. Trying to distract from PBS’s less than moderate programming, he said the rescissions package “targets Elmo. And Big Bird. And Daniel Tiger and ‘Sesame Street.'” Though he garnered lots of laughs, Jeffries must have missed that HBO partnered with Sesame Street a decade ago, and Netflix recently purchased all future shows.

Ending CPB funding will not only put over $500M back in American’s pockets, but it also takes the federal government’s hand off the biased-media scale, protecting taxpayer dollars from backing, as Congressman Brandon Gill (R-Texas 26^th) calls them, “radical left propaganda outlets.”

But the cuts don’t stop with media. The first rescissions package also eliminates several avenues of funding for the infamous USAID. The program has dominated headlines as DOGE identified several completely absurd examples of wasteful spending.

The White House specifically mentioned:

• $70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland
• $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia
• $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru
• $2,000,000 for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala

And many more examples, including funding meals for al Qaida affiliated fighters in Syria, infrastructure in Afghanistan that benefits the Taliban, and even supporting health organizations involved in the Wuhan lab.

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs similarly identified USAID using tax dollars for:

• $15,000,000 for condoms to the Taliban
• $3,315,446 for “being LGBTQ in the Caribbean”
• $425,622 to help Indonesian coffee companies become more climate and gender friendly

Congressman Craig Goldman (R-Texas 12^th) has a running list tracking government waste, specifically calling out wasteful USAID funding for:

• $35,900,000 towards funding positive youth experience in Gaza
• $10,300,000 supporting male circumcision programs in Mozambique
• $17,300,000 for a diversity and inclusion scholarship program for students in Burma

The first of President Trump’s rescissions requests saves taxpayers $8.3 billion that previously funded these wasteful initiatives within USAID, allowing for greater prioritization of helpful programs that benefit Americans and honor hardworking taxpayers.

Identifying waste is another step toward financially empowering families. Not only does it put money back in their pockets, but it ends the forced funding of programs that rival the family values that allow our country to thrive. Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee is grateful the President has prioritized these initiatives and that House Leadership has taken swift action to approve the request. We now look to the Senate for the package’s final passage.