'Bait and switch': Schumer warns of bitter funding fight over GOP cuts plan

"Republicans' passage of this purely partisan proposal would be an affront to the bipartisan appropriations process," Schumer wrote in a letter to fellow Senate Democrats.

This package in particular, which narrowly squeaked through the House by a two-vote margin last month, would claw back $8.3 billion in funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and over $1 billion in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the government-backed funding arm for NPR and PBS.

Musk and DOGE made USAID a primary target of their hunt for waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government, dismantling much of the long-standing organization ahead of the rescission request. 

The impending deadline to fund the government in September will either require the passage of a dozen appropriations bills - something Congress has not done in years - or the need to work with Democrats to crest the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

And the rescissions package is not wildly popular among Republicans.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said during a hearing on the package late last month that she was concerned about proposed cuts to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the CPB, and warned that cuts to the AIDS and HIV prevention program would be "extraordinarily ill-advised and shortsighted."

Schumer is no stranger to trying to leverage government funding fights to his advantage. Earlier this year, he withheld support for the House GOP-authored government funding extension before ultimately agreeing to the deal.

That same scenario could play out once more come September.

"This is beyond a bait-and-switch - it is a bait-and-poison-to-kill," Schumer said. "Senate Republicans must reject this partisan path and instead work with Democrats on a bipartisan appropriations process."