US senators approve $9bn in federal cuts

Measures product of Elon Musk’s DOGE

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The US Senate approved early yesterday a package of spending cuts proposed by President Donald Trump that would cancel more than US$9 billion (292 billion baht) in funding for foreign aid programmes and public broadcasting.

The upper chamber of Congress green-lit the measure in what was seen as the first test of how easily lawmakers could usher into law savings sought by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — in the aftermath of the tech mogul’s acrimonious exit from the government.

Despite the cutbacks’ unpopularity in some sections of both parties, the Republican-led Senate passed the measure with 51 votes for and 48 against in a session that went more than two hours past midnight.

The version of the text passed in June by the House of Representatives sought to eliminate $400 million in funding allocated to health programmes, including the PEPFAR global AIDS relief fund created by then-president George W Bush.

But defunding PEPFAR — which has saved an estimated 26 million lives — was seen as a nonstarter among a handful of moderate Republican senators, and the proposal was dropped.