WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Welcome to the "News Hour."

The clock is ticking for Congress to claw back more than $9 billion of federal funding for programs including foreign aid and public media.

Tomorrow is the final deadline for the House to pass the so-called rescissions package, which is a priority for President Trump.

Lisa Desjardins joins me now with the latest.

Lisa, bring us up to speed where this rescissions bill is.

LISA DESJARDINS: Well, the House is preparing to vote.

My reporting is, it will happen very late tonight or perhaps in the early morning hours.

This is the final vote needed to pass these immediate cuts.

And my reporting is that the votes are in fact there.

Those who have opposed this in the past told me today that now they are more or less on board.

There may still be a few no Republican votes, but this is on track to pass later tonight.

Now, it should go without saying this is a major victory for President Trump and his ability to sway Congress.

Many Republicans did not want to vote on this, thought this was really not worth their time.

It's not really a lot of money in the scheme of the whole federal budget.

And many of them privately would have voted no if it was a secret ballot vote.

But this is on track to pass in the next hours.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Given that -- we have talked about this quite a bit over the last few weeks.

This is going to have some impacts.

Let's talk about those impacts on public broadcasting.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

The public broadcasting portion is $1.1 billion.

It's the smaller portion, but it is the only portion where funding is completely eliminated.

All of the funding for public broadcasting for the next two years is eliminated here, very significant.

Now, NPR has -- their CEO has put out a statement saying this is a risk to public safety because of potential cuts to emergency broadcasts, for example.

And also, PBS' CEO, Paula Kerger, put out a statement today as well.

She wrote: "These cuts will significantly impact all of our stations, but will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas."

We put together a map using Corporation of Public Broadcasting data of the rural stations most at risk.

These are stations around the country where they depend on 40 percent or more of their funding from the federal government.

These are the ones most at risk.

You see a large number of them in Alaska, but they are all over the country, notably not on the Eastern Seaboard, really not in major cities.

These are the rural areas that are in trouble or could have trouble.

What will happen with these stations?

Well, it is going to be a monthslong progress.

I know a lot of our viewers are watching on those stations right now.

And each station will have to sort out how they move forward, what their needs are.

Do they depend more on their viewers?

Do they work together with other stations?

Can they survive this?

It is a critical historical moment for stations that have been around for generations.

Now, there is one other piece of reporting I want to raise.

There was a side deal that I have reporting on made by Don Bacon of Nebraska who voted yes, ultimately -- there he is -- for this deal that had to do with PBS funding.

Now, here is what he told me earlier this month about the side deal.

He wrote, he said -- quote -- "I got a commitment to make sure PBS is funded this year from Speaker Johnson and I trust the speaker."

That commitment supposedly is to take place in September.

But there are real questions about how that works.

He again told me today they do trust the speaker.

We will have to see.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Public media separately.

There's also, as you have reported quite a bit, so much about foreign aid in this bill.

You did report earlier this week how PEPFAR, the HIV/AIDS program, was pulled out of that, but there are still major cuts for foreign aid.

Tell us about that.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

Those cuts to PEPFAR, those are off the table now.

That program will survive completely intact right now.

But let's take a look at those other cuts in foreign aid.

Now, $4 billion of that is economic and democratic programs really fostering democracy in other countries, as well as the economies of countries where the United States is worried about potential economic or political collapse; $800 million is for shelter, water needs, sanitation, and also family reunification, $500 million for countries facing natural disasters, again, some of those basic needs.

So while we have been talking about PEPFAR and HIV, these are also day-to-day living needs, and this is money that will be cut off as soon as the president signs this bill.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: There are longer-term implications to this, right?

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes, there are significant longer-term implications.

I'm very happy to talk about them, because what this is doing is it is setting in motion an entirely new way of funding, using government's funding power.

We expect as soon, as this is signed, maybe more decisions offers from the president, more requests.

And what this does is, all of the funding that is being cut here was passed by Congress with 60 votes in the Senate, but it's being cut by just over 50 votes.

So it's changing the dynamic so that the White House has the funding power.

The Senate's 60-vote margin really is not as important anymore.

So what the president can do here is just continue to cut, cut, cut, no matter what Congress spends.

It is yet another shift toward presidential power.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It is huge, titanic developments here.

One other piece of news from Capitol Hill today.

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a nominee to a very -- a controversial nominee to a very important court.

Update us on that.

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

We have covered it here before.

This is Emil Bove.

He right now is the number three official at the Department of Justice.

He's in his 40s.

He has a long history.

He has been a clerk in court, a prosecutor, also was a defense attorney for President Donald Trump.

A lot of controversy over his demeanor, but also over his role specifically in helping fire prosecutors who went after President Trump in the January 6 case, as well as his role in that plea deal with the New York City mayor, Eric Adams, the dropping of charges there.

Now, the controversy really bubbled up today in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Republicans moved forward his nomination.

But Democrats want more time to debate.

And so they acted in protest today in that committee.

There you see, they stood up because they wanted more time to talk about this nominee and they left the room in protest.

Now, there was some debate a little bit in committee today, and there was a back-and-forth over, who is the problem here?

Is it Democrats for opposing this nominee or is it Republicans for pushing him forward?

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): This is us simply trying to rush through one of the most controversial nominees we have had under this presidential administration.

Sir, God bless America.

You are a good man.

You are a decent man.

Why are you doing this?

What is Donald Trump saying to you that are making you do something which is violating the decorum of this committee?

SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R-IA): The vicious partisan attacks and obstruction of nominees that we have seen from Democrats this Congress has to stop.

One day, roles will reverse again and my colleagues will want the same fairness for nominees of their president that they refuse to extend to President Trump's nominees.

LISA DESJARDINS: Quickly, I want to play the sound of a judge who signed a letter who expressed why he's concerned about this.

JOHN E. JONES III, Former Federal Judge: Mr. Bove has great experience as a lawyer.

However, implicit in his resume is that he engaged in some questionable ethical behavior as a prosecutor, including being sanctioned by a judge.

He has been the architect of a purge in the Department of Justice, where he has systematically fired career prosecutors who were engaged in the January 6 prosecution.

LISA DESJARDINS: Bove told senators, though, that's a wildly inaccurate representation of him and he's just an attorney.

He is on track to get this important nomination and confirmation.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lisa, thank you so much.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.