On July 17, 2025, Kansas Senator Roger Marshall 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 casting two of the votes that brought it to the floor on 50 to 50 ties and voting against amendments to strike or limit the cut. Kansas public radio and television stations had received $3,989,434 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2024, and Smoky Hills PBS said the loss eliminates half of its annual budget. On January 30, 2026, Marshall 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, Marshall 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. Marshall said of the rescissions package, "I am proud to support this package."
Roger Marshall's Votes on Rescissions, Withheld Funds and Where the Money Went
- Marshall Cast Deciding Votes to Take Up, Then Voted to Pass, the Rescissions Package That Cut Kansas's Public Stations in July 2025. On July 15, 2025, Roger Marshall voted yes on the motion to discharge the Rescissions Act from committee and on the motion to proceed to it. Both were agreed to 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote, so neither would have passed without his vote. On July 16 he 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. 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 Salina, Smoky Hills PBS said losing the federal funding eliminates half of its annual budget.
- Marshall Voted Against Barring the Pocket Rescissions the Budget Office Used in 2026. On January 30, 2026, Marshall 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."
- Marshall Cast a Deciding Vote Against Requiring FEMA to Spend Its Disaster Money in April 2026. On April 23, 2026, Marshall 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 Marshall 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.
- Marshall Cast One of the Votes That Kept $100 Million for the Budget Office in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Marshall 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.
- Marshall Voted to Keep ICE's Unspent Detention Money in January 2026. On January 30, 2026, Marshall 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).
- Marshall Voted Against Cutting Off DOGE, Whose Savings Claims GAO Found Unsupported. On March 14, 2025, Marshall 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.
- Marshall Voted to Confirm the Budget Director Who Canceled and Held Back Money Congress Approved. On February 6, 2025, Marshall 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.
- Marshall Voted to Confirm the Cabinet Secretaries Whose Agencies Illegally Withheld Funds. Marshall 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.
- Marshall Said Kansans Were Tired of Paying for Public Broadcasting as He Backed the Cut. Roger Marshall said "I am proud to support this package" on June 3, 2025, when the White House sent the rescissions request to Congress, and on July 14, 2025 he said on Newsmax that "folks back in Kansas are tired of the federal government spending a billion dollars on public broadcasting." On July 19, 2025 he told WIBW that Kansans "don't like their tax money being spent on stations that promote DEI." His statements endorse the public broadcasting rescission that the law carried out: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted to dissolve itself after 58 years, and High Plains Public Radio, which serves western Kansas, faced a loss of $550,000 over the next two years, or about 15% of its budget.
What the Cuts and Withheld Funds Roger Marshall Backed Mean for Kansas
- Public stations. Kansas public radio and television stations received $3,989,434 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2024, money the rescission ended. Smoky Hills PBS in Salina said that losing the federal funding eliminates half of its annual budget, and High Plains Public Radio in western Kansas faced a loss of $550,000 over the next two years.
- Research grants. By November 2025, researchers had lost grant funding of $30.5 million in Missouri and $7.66 million in Kansas from terminated NIH and National Science Foundation grants, according to the Grant Witness count reported by the Missouri Independent. GAO found that Kennedy's NIH violated the ICA by withholding funds.
Frequently Asked Questions About Roger Marshall on Government spending
What is Roger Marshall's record on government spending under Trump?
Roger Marshall voted for the 2025 Rescissions Act, which cut public broadcasting, and against amendments that would have limited the cut. He voted against barring the pocket rescissions the budget office used to cancel $810 million in 2026, and he cast one of the deciding votes against requiring FEMA to spend its disaster money. He voted to confirm Russell Vought, whose office carried out the cancellations.
How did Roger Marshall vote on cutting funding for PBS, NPR and Kansas public stations?
Roger Marshall 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. Marshall also cast two deciding votes on July 15, 2025, on 50-to-50 ties, to discharge the bill from committee and bring it to the floor. On Newsmax he said folks back in Kansas are tired of federal spending on public broadcasting.
What is a pocket rescission, and did Roger Marshall vote to stop it?
Roger Marshall 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