House Speaker Mike Johnson said he wants funding for Planned Parenthood and PBS to be on the chopping block next year, as Republicans ramp up their plan to scale back the federal government during President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration.
“I would like to, that’s for sure,” Johnson responded when asked during an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum whether he was planning to “ax” them.
He went on to note that he still has to “build consensus” to ensure he has enough votes in Congress to carry it out.
“That's where it takes the hard work of legislating and getting everybody on the same page,” Johnson said.
At the same time, he said that the Trump White House will have “broad authority” to act on government downsizing efforts themselves, predicting some of it will be done unilaterally through executive orders.
Republicans are set to have what's known as a trifecta in Washington next year after winning control of the White House, Senate and House in November’s election.
The party is putting an emphasis on cutting the size and influence of the federal government, including through Trump’s new effort, dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, led by businessmen Elon Musk and Viviek Ramaswamy. In a statement announcing the new department last month, Trump pledged the pair would “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
Musk and Ramaswamy were on Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet with Johnson and other Republicans.
During his Fox News interview, Johnson said the party was “preparing the playbook to unleash and unroll in January” when Republicans take over, adding that he wants to “take a blowtorch to the regulatory state.”
Planned Parenthood in particular has long been a target of Republicans for the fact that abortions are one of the many different services it provides.
During his first term in 2019, Trump took a step toward cutting funding for the organization when he passed a rule barring clinics that perform abortion services or make referrals from receiving federal funding as part of a particular government program. President Joe Biden rolled that policy back during his administration.
On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump pledged to defund the organization but took a more nuanced stance on abortion in general during the 2024 election following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.