CNN
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House Republican leaders are preparing for a late night in the chamber as they try to jam through President Donald Trump’s $9 billion package of cuts to federal funding — after a day of intense talks with GOP holdouts demanding a vote on a Jeffrey Epstein-related measure.
Republican leadership sources say the plan is to push the bill, which would formally enshrine a slice of the funding cuts sought by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, through the chamber sometime Thursday night — with the potential to spill into the overnight hours.
The DOGE cuts bill – known as a “recissions package” on Capitol Hill – would cancel $9 billion in funding to foreign aid and public broadcasting. Roughly $8 billion will be taken from congressionally approved foreign aid programs as part of the White House’s efforts to dismantle the US Agency for International Development. Another $1.1 billion comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund NPR and PBS.
The issue of more transparency over the Epstein case has percolated for days on Capitol Hill and placed a wedge between Trump and even some of his most steadfast supporters in the House GOP. Republican leadership spent hours with House Rules Committee members Thursday afternoon, negotiating a path forward.
The committee later voted Thursday night to advance the DOGE cuts package, a key hurdle the bill needed to clear before it can come to the floor for consideration.
Separately, Republicans advanced a non-binding resolution that calls for the release of Epstein-related materials after a day of intense talks with GOP holdouts amid calls from a number of Republicans for more transparency.
There is nothing that would compel this to the floor, however. House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx said when the resolution is brought to the floor will be “up to the Majority Leader.”
Democrats tried to put teeth behind the GOP’s Epstein resolution and convert it into a bill that would have been enforceable, but Republicans blocked it.
The House is racing the clock as Republicans attempt to get the DOGE cuts bill passed and to the president for his signature before a Friday deadline. The deadline is mandated under the budget rules Republicans are using to move the package without Democratic votes.
Senate Republicans agreed in the early hours of Thursday morning to cancel the billions in already approved funding after a marathon overnight vote session on amendments.
While most Senate Republicans firmly embraced the spending cuts and are pressing for more, some within the party raised concerns over the White House push, arguing that it set a harmful precedent undermining congressional authority.
Ultimately, just two Republicans opposed the measure on the final Senate vote: Susan Collins, the Maine senator who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
CNN’s Sarah Ferris and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
