After an all-night marathon of amendments, the U.S. Senate voted to advance U.S. President Donald Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package on Wednesday. The package will claw back nearly $8 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid.
The vote came after more than 12 hours of near-continuous roll-call votes, a process known in Capitol Hill as a vote-a-rama. Triggered by the bill’s use of budget reconciliation, the process allowed any senator to offer amendments — producing a legislative showdown that stretched past midnight.
Just after 2 a.m., the senators came to a 51-48 vote, pushing ahead a final bill that’s slated to strip billions of dollars in development, humanitarian, and economic assistance. It will also slice away more than $1 billion in previously approved funds from the United Nations, its agencies and its peacekeeping operations, and rescind funding for public broadcasting in the United States.