In a Thursday morning vote, the Senate voted 51-48 to advance the package, which sent the measure back to the House for a final vote. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) switched sides and voted with the Democrats—a move that shouldn't surprise anybody.

Both houses of Congress needed to pass the bill by Friday because, as CBS puts it, "Both chambers need to approve the request before it expires at the end of the week, or the funds will have to be spent as lawmakers previously intended."

On Tuesday, Senate Republican leaders said that they had the votes to pass the bill. At the time, I wrote, "With the slim margins the GOP has, Republicans could only afford to lose three votes and still pass this bill. Having [South Dakota Sen.] Rounds come around on the bill was a big win."

The Senate's work on the bill reduced the cuts slightly from $9.4 billion to $9 billion, including defunding PBS and NPR; the package also guts USAID to the tune of nearly $8 billion. The Senate took out cuts to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the George W. Bush-era initiative to combat AIDS in Africa.

...

"President Trump is leaning heavily on Republican senators to back the package, and even some of the GOP senators who have doubts about it to stand behind it," I wrote on Tuesday. "Trump even said that he would refuse to endorse any senator who voted against defunding public broadcasting."

Trump's efforts paid off with the passage of this bill. This could further cement the legacy of the second Trump administration, and hopefully, it's only the beginning... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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