On July 17, 2025, Florida Senator Ashley Moody voted for the Rescissions Act, which the White House sent to Congress to formalize DOGE's cuts and which took back $1.1 billion from public broadcasting, after voting against amendments to strike or limit that cut. In Tallahassee, WFSU said nearly two dozen positions across all departments will be eliminated after the federal money and Florida's state money for public media both ended. On January 30, 2026, Moody voted against an amendment to bar the late-year pocket rescissions the budget office then used in September 2026 to cancel $810 million Congress had approved.
Moody voted to confirm budget director Russell Vought, whose office carried out the pocket rescissions, and the cabinet secretaries whose agencies the Government Accountability Office found had illegally withheld money Congress provided, including federal research money at Florida universities.
Ashley Moody's Votes on Rescissions, Withheld Funds and Where the Money Went
- Moody Voted for the Rescissions Package That Cut Florida's Public Stations in July 2025. On July 16, 2025, Ashley Moody voted no on an amendment to strike the rescission of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which failed 47 to 52, and voted against a motion to protect stations licensed to or primarily serve rural areas or Tribal communities. On July 17 she voted against Senator Lisa Murkowski's amendment to replace the public broadcasting cut with a much smaller one, and then voted yes on final passage. The bill passed 51 to 48 after the White House sent it to Congress to formalize cuts made by DOGE. The law took back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting through fiscal year 2027, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board voted to dissolve itself after 58 years. In Melbourne, Florida, WFIT announced a 50% reduction in staffing after losing its federal money and the state money Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed.
- Moody Voted Against Barring the Pocket Rescissions the Budget Office Used in 2026. On January 30, 2026, Moody voted no on waiving the budget rules for an amendment providing that a rescission request may not propose to rescind or defer any budget authority that would expire within 90 days, the maneuver known as a pocket rescission. It needed 60 votes and failed 47 to 52. On September 25, 2026, the White House budget office used that maneuver again: The $810 million in the “pocket rescission” would have gone to refugee assistance programs at the Department of Health and Human Services and other programs Congress had funded. The Government Accountability Office wrote that The President may not force the expiration of budget authority Congress has already enacted and did not rescind.
- Moody Cast One of the Votes That Kept $100 Million for the Budget Office in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Moody voted no on an amendment to strike $100,000,000 that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act gives the Office of Management and Budget for purposes of finding budget and accounting efficiencies in the executive branch. It was rejected 50 to 50, so each no vote was needed to keep the money. The same office, under Russell Vought, clawed back $4.9 billion in funding in August 2025 through a pocket rescission, and the Supreme Court allowed President Trump's administration to withhold more than $4 billion in foreign aid funding in an interim order.
- Moody Voted to Keep ICE's Unspent Detention Money in January 2026. On January 30, 2026, Moody voted no on an amendment that would have taken back unspent ICE money from the 2025 tax-and-spending law, including the $45,000,000,000, for single adult alien detention capacity and family residential center capacity. It needed 60 votes and failed 49 to 51. In June 2026 she again voted against an amendment to rescind unobligated balances under that law. The law gave ICE $75 billion in new funding on top of its annual budget, NPR reported. A Project on Government Oversight review, relayed by CorpWatch, found that CSI Aviation was awarded US$1.2 billion in contracts (a 238 percent increase over the previous year).
- Moody Voted Against Cutting Off DOGE, Whose Savings Claims GAO Found Unsupported. On March 14, 2025, Moody voted no on barring the U.S. DOGE Service from using funds in the full-year spending law. GAO later found that some of DOGE's claimed savings estimates are incorrect or lack supporting evidence, while agencies spent $9.5 billion in salary costs on paid administrative leave in 2025, much of it for workers who took the deferred resignation offer.
- Moody Voted to Confirm the Budget Director Who Canceled and Held Back Money Congress Approved. On February 6, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget, and he was confirmed 53 to 47. In August 2025 Vought's office withheld foreign aid until it expired, and GAO found the Impoundment Control Act does not permit the withholding of funds past their date of expiration. Transportation for America found in May 2026 that OMB is stonewalling $4.9 billion that Congress has appropriated for new transit lines.
- Moody Voted to Confirm the Cabinet Secretaries Whose Agencies Illegally Withheld Funds. Moody voted to confirm Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary on January 25, 2025, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary on February 13, 2025 and Lee Zeldin as EPA administrator on January 29, 2025. GAO found that Noem's FEMA had violated the Impoundment Control Act by withholding grant money, that NIH violated the ICA by withholding funds from obligation and expenditure under Kennedy, and that EPA violated the ICA when the agency, without submitting a special message to Congress, withheld Community Change Grants. GAO also found that agencies canceled about 800 infrastructure and energy awards, and More than 2,500 awards were pending a decision.
What the Cuts and Withheld Funds Ashley Moody Backed Mean for Florida
- Public stations. WFSU Public Media in Tallahassee, run by Florida State University, said nearly two dozen positions across all departments will be eliminated as it faced an estimated $2.8 million loss in funding, after both the federal rescission Moody voted for and state cuts.
- Water and drainage grant. Under the EPA administrator Moody confirmed, the agency terminated $15 million grant funding from the Inflation Reduction Act intended for Tampa Bay area projects, money for stormwater ponds and for moving University Area residents off well water, Spectrum Bay News 9 reported.
- Research grants. The National Institutes of Health moved to eliminate $16.3 million in funding at Florida's only public historically Black university, Florida A&M, under the health secretary Moody confirmed.
Frequently Asked Questions About Ashley Moody on Government spending
What is Ashley Moody's record on government spending under Trump?
Ashley Moody voted for the 2025 Rescissions Act, which cut public broadcasting, and against amendments that would have limited the cut. She voted against barring the pocket rescissions the budget office used to cancel $810 million in 2026, and she voted against taking back ICE's unspent money from the 2025 tax law. She voted to confirm Russell Vought, whose office carried out the cancellations.
How did Ashley Moody vote on cutting funding for PBS, NPR and Florida's public stations?
Ashley Moody voted for the July 2025 Rescissions Act, which passed 51 to 48, and against amendments to strike the public broadcasting cut or protect rural and tribal stations. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board then voted to dissolve itself after 58 years, ending the grants that Florida stations such as WFSU and WFIT had counted on.
What is a pocket rescission, and did Ashley Moody vote to stop it?
Ashley Moody voted on January 30, 2026 against an amendment that would have barred pocket rescissions, in which the President asks Congress to cancel money so close to the end of the fiscal year that it expires before Congress acts. GAO found that the President may not force the expiration of budget authority that Congress enacted, and the administration used the maneuver in September 2026 to cancel money for refugee assistance.
Last updated: 2026-10-25