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Senate Passes $9B DOGE Cuts, Sends It Back to House
The Senate gave its approval early Thursday morning to President Donald Trump’s proposal to slash billions in funding allocated for foreign aid and public broadcasting, marking a legislative victory for the Republican leader.
In a 51-48 vote, senators backed Trump’s initiative to cancel $9 billion in already-authorized government expenditures.
Among the 53 Republicans in the Senate, only Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine broke ranks to oppose the measure, siding with Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who earlier this week voted against bringing the bill forward—requiring a tiebreaker vote from Vice President JD Vance—ultimately supported it when it came up for a final vote.
The bulk of the proposed cuts are aimed at international assistance programs that support regions afflicted by illness, conflict, and environmental catastrophes. Additionally, the package erases the full $1.1 billion in anticipated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting over the next two years.
Trump and many Republicans have long contended that taxpayer funding for public media is wasteful and have been critical of its editorial stance, which they say displays bias against conservative viewpoints.
It’s highly unusual for rescission bills—proposals to revoke previously authorized spending—to pass, as lawmakers are generally reluctant to relinquish their constitutional authority over the federal purse.
Though $9 billion is a minuscule fraction of the overall $6.8 trillion federal budget, the rescissions are part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration to drastically scale back spending. Many of these efforts have been led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), created under billionaire Elon Musk’s direction.
According to data compiled by Democratic lawmakers monitoring budget holds, as of mid-June, the administration had frozen $425 billion in congressionally approved funds.
Nevertheless, Trump and his allies have vowed to introduce more rescission requests, arguing that pulling back previously allocated money is essential to shrinking the size of government.
Last month, the House narrowly passed the measure 214-212, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against it.
In response to concerns among Senate Republicans regarding cuts to international health initiatives, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought announced earlier this week that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)—a flagship anti-AIDS program initiated in 2003 under George W. Bush—would be spared from the cuts.
That concession reduced the total amount of the proposed rescissions from $9.4 billion to $9 billion, prompting the need for a second House vote before the package can head to Trump’s desk for final approval.
Under the law, Congress has until Friday to pass the rescissions measure. If the deadline is missed, the request will lapse, and the executive branch will be obligated to follow the existing spending framework enacted by Congress.
Senators Murkowski and Collins maintained their opposition to the bill during the final vote.
“You don’t need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” Murkowski said in remarks on the Senate floor.
She voiced concern that the administration had failed to guarantee continued support for global disease eradication campaigns, citing malaria and polio. More fundamentally, Murkowski emphasized, Congress must not abandon its constitutional power over fiscal decisions.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota characterized the initiative as a “small, but important step toward fiscal sanity.”
Democrats disagreed sharply, highlighting that earlier this month Republicans supported a sweeping tax and spending package estimated by independent analysts to increase the national debt by more than $3 trillion, which currently stands at $36.2 trillion.
They accused the GOP of relinquishing legislative power over spending.
“Today, Senate Republicans turn this chamber into a subservient rubber stamp for the executive, at the behest of Donald Trump,” charged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
“Republicans embrace the credo of cut, cut, cut now, and ask questions later,” Schumer added.
The rescissions would override recent bipartisan budget agreements, including the comprehensive funding bill passed in March. Democrats warned that this partisan maneuver could make it harder to reach consensus on the broader budget legislation that must be passed by September 30 to avert a government shutdown.
While most Senate legislation requires a 60-vote threshold to advance, rescission packages only need a simple majority—allowing Republicans to pass it even without a single Democratic vote.
{Matzav.com}
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Matzav Inbox: The Drowning Mosdos
Dear Matzav Inbox,
I write this letter to you having firsthand knowledge. It’s something I live with every day.
It’s time we stop whispering about a crisis that’s already roaring through the hallways of our mosdos hachinuch. The financial collapse of our yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs isn’t a looming threat. It’s here. Mosdos that carry the burden of raising the next generation of bnei Torah, bnos Yisroel, and committed ovdei Hashem are suffocating under the weight of deficits, mounting debts, and impossible expectations.
Speak to any administrator off the record and you’ll hear the same grim truth: they don’t know how they’ll meet payroll the next month. Teachers are waiting on delayed checks. Office staff are fielding desperate phone calls not just from vendors, but from parents, drowning in financial anxiety. Building repairs are being deferred, programs cut, and class sizes ballooning, all because the money just isn’t there.
Let’s be honest. The vast majority of parents in our communities simply cannot pay full tuition. Many can’t even meet discounted obligations. The cost of living in the frum world continues to soar—housing, groceries, health insurance, simchos, etc.—and then comes tuition, often the largest and most relentless expense of all. Multiply that by three, five, seven or more children, and the math doesn’t work. No financial planning course in the world can make it add up.
We can’t ignore the reality that the current tuition model is broken. It is built on the unspoken assumption that a minority of full-paying families, along with heroic fundraising efforts, will somehow carry the rest. But those full-pay families are shrinking in number. The donor class is already stretched thin, being pulled in ten directions by countless communal needs. And the askanim fundraising for schools are burning out, facing rejection after rejection, year after year, while being expected to perform financial miracles.
Meanwhile, families who request discounts are often made to feel ashamed or judged, forced to disclose personal financial details to justify their need. The process is invasive, humiliating, and in many cases, completely detached from the real financial stressors families face—credit card debt, unstable income, and so on. We are expecting mothers and fathers, already overwhelmed with life, to defend their right to educate their children.
Mosdos are constantly teetering on the edge, unable to pay their rebbeim and moros adequately or on time.
We can no longer afford to treat this crisis as “someone else’s problem.” We need real solutions—and I honestly don’t know what those solutions are. And no, the ECCA bill is not the answer. It might help a bit, but it won’t solve the problem.
Don’t say you didn’t know. You heard it here. Our mosdos are drowning.
Sincerely,
S. T.
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{Matzav.com}
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‘Just An Agriculture Minister’: BBC News Head Implies Hamas Gov’t Are Politicians Not Terrorists
During a staff meeting, BBC News CEO Deborah Turness made comments distinguishing the political leadership of Hamas from its military faction, sparking criticism. Her remarks, captured on video and released by The Telegraph on Wednesday, were made in the context of ongoing fallout from a controversial documentary that aired earlier this year.
Turness made the distinction while discussing the backlash to the BBC’s documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, which faced widespread condemnation. The program aired on February 17, 2025, and was narrated by 13-year-old Abdullah Al-Yazouri, a boy living in Gaza. Soon after the broadcast, it was revealed that Abdullah’s father is Ayman Alyazouri, a deputy minister in Gaza’s Hamas-led government, prompting the BBC to launch a formal review.
The broadcaster issued its findings this week, in a report overseen by Peter Johnston, director of editorial complaints and reviews at the BBC. The investigation concluded that the network had violated its editorial standards by not disclosing Alyazouri’s official position. According to the report, “to disclose in the program the information about the narrator’s father’s position as deputy minister of agriculture in the Hamas-run government in Gaza was a breach of the BBC’s editorial guidelines.”
In her video remarks to staff, Turness stated: “I think it’s really important that we are clear that Abdullah’s father was a deputy agriculture minister, and therefore was a member of the Hamas-run government, which is different to being part of the military wing of Hamas.” She added, “Externally, it’s often simplified that he was in Hamas, and I think it’s an important point of detail that we need to continually remind people of the difference.”
However, The Telegraph emphasized that the UK government does not make such a differentiation. In the eyes of British law, Hamas is outlawed in its entirety, without distinction between its branches.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Dr. Amira Halperin, an academic expert in Middle Eastern affairs, weighed in on Turness’ remarks. Referring to a section of the BBC’s internal review, Dr. Halperin noted it claimed the production company believed the father held a civilian role, not a political or militant one. “This is problematic because Hamas’ military wing, ‘Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades’, was proscribed by the UK in March 2001,” she said. “In 2021, the Home Office assessed that the distinction between Hamas’s military and political wings is artificial. The Home Office decided to ban Hamas in its entirety.”
She further clarified that under UK law, expressing support for Hamas is a criminal offense that can carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years. “A Hamas Deputy Minister of Agriculture is a minister in a government that has been banned in the UK as a terrorist organisation in its entirety,” she stressed.
Dr. Halperin also reflected on the conflicted views held by some Palestinians she has interviewed. “The Palestinians I interviewed told me that they do not always want to declare that they are affiliated with the Hamas party and consume Hamas’ websites, as the Hamas party is, on one hand, a legitimate political power – the party that won the Palestinian legislative elections, but, on the other hand, Hamas is classified as a terrorist organisation by a few Western governments,” she said.
Following the leak of Turness’ internal comments, Andrew Gilbert, Vice President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, released a public response expressing deep dismay. “I am extremely concerned that within days of the BBC’s damning report… Turness appears to be obfuscating and minimising the BBC’s failings.” He continued, “Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organization, and this so-called distinction between political and military wings has been categorically dismissed as artificial by the British government.”
Gilbert warned that Turness’ statements signaled the BBC had failed to absorb the lessons of its recent missteps.
{Matzav.com}
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