Kelly votes to codify $9.4 billion in cuts, reduce federal spending

June 12, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) voted in favor of a recissions package to codify $9.4 billion in wasteful spending identified by President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency.

This includes a rescission of $8.3 billion in wasteful foreign aid spending and a $1.1 billion recission of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

"House Republicans are committed to right-sizing government, and it starts with commonsense reforms like these," said Rep. Kelly. "The American people have made it clear: they want Congress to get federal spending back on track. This just the first step toward getting Washington's fiscal house in order."

Examples of waste, fraud, and abuse that will be cut through this recissions package:

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

NPR's CEO, Katherine Maher, called President Trump a "fascist" and "deranged racist"
PBS programming includes "Real Boy," a program about a trans teen, and "Our League" about a trans woman returning to her hometown
NPR requested and received a $1.9 million grant commitment from CPB to hire more "moderate" editors and journalists, as they recognized their complete leftist bias

Woke & Weaponized Foreign Aid

$167,000 for free education and healthcare to Ecuadorian and Venezuelan migrants
$889,000 for electoral reforms and voter education in Kenya
$1 million for voter ID in Haiti
$33,000 for "Being LGBTI in the Caribbean"
$643,000 for LGBTQI+ programs in the Western Balkans
$567,000 for LBGTQI+ programs in Uganda
$8,000 for promoting vegan food in Zambia
$500,000 for electric busses in Rwanda
$4 million for legume systems research
$67,000 for feeding insect powder to children in Madagascar
$6 million for "Net Zero Cities" in Mexico
$3 million for Iraqi Sesame Street
$4 million for "sedentary migrants" in Colombia
$1 million for programs to strengthen the resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer global movements
$6 million for supporting media organizations and civic life of Palestinians
$2.5 million for teaching young children how to make environmentally friendly "reproductive health" decisions
$3 million for sexual reproductive health in Venezuela
$2.1 million for climate resilience in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and East Africa
Programs that prop up woke climate change programs for U.S. universities
$614,700 for climate adaptation, including to grow coral reefs in the Caribbean
$135 million in contributions to the World Health Organization (WHO)
$8 million for the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
$158 million from the Lebanon Peacekeeping Mission (UNIFIL), which has been fraught with waste and abuse, as evidenced by its abject failure to contain Hezbollah
$142 million from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)
$83 million from the UN Development Program (UNDP)
$33 million from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
$130 million from other IOP programs, which includes programs like UN Women, UN Panel on Climate Change, Int'l Conservation Programs, etc.

PEPFAR Recissions:

$3 million for circumcision, vasectomies, and condoms in Zambia
$5.1 million to strengthen the "resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer global movements"
$833,000 for services for "transgender people, sex workers and their clients and sexual networks" in Nepal

The United States Institute of Peace

The President’s Executive Order (14217) eliminated the USIP.
$1.2 million for the "Afrobarometer public opinion survey."
$100,000 for Harvard to conduct research models for peace
$77,000 for University of Denver for "Escaping the Ethnic Trap in Deeply Divided Societies."

United States African Development Foundation

The President’s Executive Order (14217) eliminated the USADF
Programs such as graphic design training in Nigeria
"African Hive Camping and Tours" to create adventure trips for backpackers