President Donald Trump achieved another landmark win early Friday morning, and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) played a starring role.
Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought tapped Schmitt to run point on the White House rescissions package in the Senate, ultimately securing passage in a tight 51-48 vote. The House of Representatives then passed the Senate-amended $9 billion rescissions package in the wee hours Friday morning, the culmination of weeks of work for a victory that has eluded conservatives for decades.
“It doesn’t happen every day,” Schmitt told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview. “It’s the first time really had one in decades. It just further cements President Trump’s agenda.”
The package ends taxpayer subsidization of left-leaning NPR and PBS and eliminates funding for foreign aid grants for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“People have talked about defunding NPR and Corporation for Public Broadcasting for a long time, but it’s never happened,” Schmitt said. “I think as much as the 9 billion matters — or 90 billion in the ten-year window, that matters a lot — but I also think for us to be able to say, ‘Look, we found the waste, fraud, and abuse, and we actually did something about it’ is pretty meaningful.”
The $9 billion in cuts is far from chump change, but the White House would like to go even further in rescinding “crazy” spending through additional rescissions packages, Schmitt said.
“The American people spoke pretty loudly,” in November, he said. “They wanted us to disrupt the status quo here in permanent Washington.”
By essentially disabling USAID, the rescissions package delivered on a core America First promise that should send a message to other rogue agencies, Schmitt believes.
“You’re gone, and you need to fold it up into the State Department so that your mission aligns with core American interests, as opposed to this wandering woke ideology of the left,” he said emphatically.
The rescissions package, while significant, also represents a piece of an even larger puzzle, “not just the dollars and cents, but symbolically, this course correction that we’re able to execute,” Schmitt told Breitbart News, adding he is “really gratified to be the sponsor and then managing the floor and working with colleagues throughout the night.”
“We didn’t lose any amendment votes,” he added. “We didn’t lose any of the 9 billion along the way — that took a lot of hard work and effort. And I think [Senate Majority Leader] John Thune (R-SD) and [Senate Majority Whip] John Barrasso (S-WY) were great to work with on this. They were incredibly helpful, and they were steady on this. They wanted to make sure we got this done for the President, for the American people.”
Congress’s inability to pass timely appropriations bills is well discussed, routinely passing massive omnibus legislation or continuing resolutions instead of each of the twelve appropriations bills required by law. Rescissions gives Congress the ability to perform surgical cuts with only 51 votes in the Senate, eliminating much of the waste stuffed into spending bills which require 60 votes in the upper chamber.
“That is what the rescissions process is for, is you find it and you cut it out,” Schmitt said. “It’s a great way for us to help restore some trust that if there is this wasteful spending, there’s a mechanism that can work to go do something about it. And, and I think that was what was unique about this. Hopefully we get this into our muscle memory and we can do more of these.”
Schmitt blasted Democrats for their budget priorities, as the party struggles to find a direction amid a Marxist insurgence led by New York City’s Democrat mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.
“Are they a mainstream party?” he asked. “They’re about ready to elect a communist in New York, and AOC and Bernie Sanders are the ones that draw crowds, and they still have Trump Derangement Syndrome, and they have no agenda. They have no leader. They’re just a wandering woke party that doesn’t appeal to Middle America in any way, shape or form.”
Democrats’ crisis presents Republicans an opportunity, but also a responsibility, Schmitt believes.
“It’s up to us, then, as Republicans, to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to find this nonsense and we’re going to root it out.’ I think that’s what people voted for, and that’s the kind of reform agenda that’ll allow us to grow our majorities.”
Vought, always on the offensive, said Thursday ahead of the House rescissions vote that the appropriations process has to be “less bipartisan,” adding, “There’s no voter in the country that went to the polls and said, ‘I’m voting for a bipartisan appropriations process.’” Yet with only 53 votes in the Senate and a slim House majority, and a handful of moderates in each chamber — most notably Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME), Republicans must strike the right balance to notch wins.
“You gotta have the votes pass, but for me, I’d certainly like to have the most conservative bill possible. And I think we did that during the rescissions package,” he said. “That’s a $9 billion product, and the key was the Democrats and others were trying to whittle that number down throughout the evening. We beat all that stuff back. So I think it’s a testament that we can have conservative legislation.”
With just over two months before the end of the fiscal year, Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill want to press the agenda on spending after securing a rescissions win.
“Look, we want to be successful, and I think that kind of success brings its own momentum and also allows us to tell a very important story,” Schmitt said. “President Trump got elected in a landslide popular vote in battleground states to shake up Washington, and we can be partners in that. And I think that’s what the American people want to see, and why the successes from the big, beautiful bill and the rescissions package now are really important.”
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye
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