JD Vance Breaks Tie in Key Rescissions Package Vote in Senate After These Three Republicans Betrayed Us

There will always be three who give us heartburn. Shockingly, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who has become the new John McCain of the Senate regarding being a thorn in the side, opted not to break ranks on the recissions package, which codifies some $9 billion in cuts. The gutting of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio is included in this package, which barely advanced on a key vote to move the bill forward. Vice President JD Vance had to go up to the hill to break the 50-50 tie. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) voted against advancing the bill (via WaPo):

NOW VOTING: Motion to discharge from Appropriations Committee H.R.4, Rescissions Act of 2025.

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) July 16, 2025

🚨BREAKING NEWS: JD Vance has cast the tie-breaking vote to advance the rescissions package in the Senate!

Republican Senators McConnell, Murkowski, and Collins voted NO.

NPR & PBS are one step closer to being DEFUNDED. pic.twitter.com/hUt91onaf8

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 16, 2025

Vance coming to CapHill to break 50/50 vote to discharge rescissions bill from cmte.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 16, 2025

Vance breaks tie to discharge rescissions bill from cmte and send it to the floor. Senate now voting on actual motion to begin debate on the bill

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 16, 2025

Senate Republicans are racing to vote this week on whether to claw back $9 billion in foreign aid and funding for public broadcasting ahead of a crucial Friday deadline. 

The rescissions bill is a top priority for the Trump administration, which plans to use the same process to seek deeper cuts in the future if it passes. But some Senate Republicans have balked at the cuts, forcing Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) to reverse course on some of them Tuesday in an attempt to secure enough votes to pass the bill.

Senate Republicans said they would remove $400 million in cuts to the HIV/AIDS relief program known as PEPFAR from the $9.4 billion package. Russell Vought, the White House budget director, said Republicans had the votes to pass the bill after lunching Tuesday with Republican senators.

Murkowski is not pleased with the cuts to PBS and NPR and doesn’t want to be a team player in getting the core tenets of the Trump agenda through.

Murkowski on her opposition to rescission package: It you don’t like what’s going on within NPR and PR, you think that there’s too much bias there. We can address that, we can address that…you don’t need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity, the…

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 16, 2025

Murkowski: “I don’t want us to go from one reconciliation bill to a recissions package to another recissions package to a reconciliation package to a continuing resolution … I don’t accept that. I’m going to be voting no”

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) July 16, 2025

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