Pete Ricketts on Government Spending: Deciding Votes for the Public Broadcasting Rescission, Votes Against Barring Pocket Rescissions, and the Saint Francis Contract

On July 15, 2025, Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts voted yes on the motions to discharge and take up the Rescissions Act, each agreed to 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote, and on July 17 he voted for the bill, which the White House sent to formalize DOGE's cuts and which took back $1.1 billion from public broadcasting. Nebraska's public stations had received $6,297,290 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2024. On January 30, 2026, Ricketts 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.

On April 23, 2026, Ricketts cast one of the votes that killed, on a 49 to 49 tie, a budget amendment to make room for requiring FEMA to spend its disaster money, after the Government Accountability Office found FEMA had illegally withheld funds. He voted to confirm budget director Russell Vought, whose office carried out the pocket rescissions, and the cabinet secretaries whose agencies GAO found had illegally withheld money Congress provided.

As Nebraska governor, Ricketts led the executive branch when his Department of Health and Human Services gave the Omaha-area child welfare contract to Saint Francis Ministries on a bid about 40% less than the incumbent's, and the state later spent an additional $110 million in emergency state funds. He called the 2025 rescission package a "great first step", the Nebraska Examiner reported.

Pete Ricketts's Votes on Rescissions, Withheld Funds and Where the Money Went

• Ricketts Cast Deciding Votes to Bring Up the Rescissions Package, Then Voted for It. On July 16, 2025, Pete Ricketts 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 he 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. Two days earlier, on July 15, he had voted yes on the motion to discharge the bill from committee and the motion to proceed to it; each was agreed to 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote, so a switch by Ricketts alone on either would have stopped the bill from reaching the floor that day. 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. The cut eliminated approximately 14% of Nebraska Public Media's operating budget, about $4 million a year, the network says.
• Ricketts Voted Against Barring the Pocket Rescissions the Budget Office Used in 2026. On January 30, 2026, Ricketts 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.
• Ricketts Cast a Deciding Vote Against Requiring FEMA to Spend Its Disaster Money in April 2026. On April 23, 2026, Ricketts voted no on a budget amendment to make room for legislation requiring FEMA to obligate the money Congress appropriated for its public assistance and hazard mitigation programs. It was rejected on a 49 to 49 tie, so a switch by Ricketts alone would have adopted it. The Government Accountability Office had found that Currently available evidence indicates that FEMA has violated the ICA, the law that bars agencies from withholding money Congress appropriated, and that the Homeland Security Department terminated 362 grants and deobligated about $1 billion for those grants.
• Ricketts Cast One of the Votes That Kept $100 Million for the Budget Office in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Ricketts 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.
• Ricketts Voted to Keep ICE's Unspent Detention Money in January 2026. On January 30, 2026, Ricketts 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 he 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).
• Ricketts Voted Against Cutting Off DOGE, Whose Savings Claims GAO Found Unsupported. On March 14, 2025, Ricketts 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.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Budget Director Who Canceled and Held Back Money Congress Approved. On February 6, 2025, Ricketts 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.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Cabinet Secretaries Whose Agencies Illegally Withheld Funds. Ricketts 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.
• As Governor, Ricketts's Administration Gave Omaha's Child Welfare Contract to a Low Bidder the State Then Paid $110 Million More. In 2019, as Nebraska governor, Pete Ricketts led the executive branch when his Department of Health and Human Services awarded the five-year Omaha-area child welfare case management contract to Saint Francis Ministries, which proposed to perform the five-year contract for $197 million, about 40 percent less than the incumbent's bid of $341 million, according to the Legislature's LR29 special committee report. The committee found the procurement failed to meaningfully assess the reasonableness of the bid. The Nebraska Examiner reported that despite an additional $110 million in emergency state funds, Saint Francis continued to fail to meet state performance standards.
• Ricketts Called the Rescission Package a 'Great First Step'. Before the vote, Ricketts called the rescission package a "great first step" in a Fox Business interview, the Nebraska Examiner reported on July 17, 2025, and after the vote he had no immediate comment but had indicated his support for the cuts. Nebraska Public Media said the loss will lead to changes in the coming months, and that nationwide, small and rural stations more dependent on federal money may close.

What the Cuts and Contracts Pete Ricketts Backed Cost Nebraska

• Public stations. Nebraska public radio and television stations received $6,297,290 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2024, money the rescission ended. Nebraska Public Media lost approximately 14% of its operating budget.
• Child welfare money. Nebraska spent an additional $110 million in emergency state funds on the Saint Francis contract that Ricketts's administration awarded, and after the state took the work back, the Examiner reported that only about 40% of all caseworkers in the Omaha area met the state's caseload law.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on Government spending

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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