WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The White House effort to claw back $9.4 billion of already allocated government spending faces a critical vote in the U.S. Senate this week.

Some Republicans have concerns about the cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting, while the clock ticks towards Friday's deadline to approve or modify the Trump administration's plan.

Our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, is here with a closer look.

So, Lisa, remind us what this rescission bill actually does.

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

This is a presidential power, but this is an unusual assertion of it.

Basically, he's trying to get Congress to reverse a series of funding that it made last year, even by supermajority.

Now, this total amount is relatively small, but it's strategically very significant.

And, of course, it includes real cuts.

So let's look at what's involved here, 22 different specific program cuts the president is asking for.

Most of it is foreign aid.

That's $8.3 billion, but there is $1.1 billion for public broadcasting.

That's all of the funding for the next two years for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In order for these cuts to happen, both chambers must approve by majority and also by law under the special rescissions maneuver, this only has 45 days to live in Congress until it basically expires.

That 45 days ends Friday.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, this week then is obviously critical as to whether it's a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

Does it have enough votes to get across the finish line?

LISA DESJARDINS: It is really up in the air right now.

I think in the Senate it probably does, but it is really not clear.

One thing to keep in mind is that the House barely passed this through.

They had to flip votes at the last minute to get it through.

Now the Senate will tackle this.

And, remember, Republicans can only lose three votes, not four, in order to get things through with just Republican votes.

So we know that there are some senators right now who, if they vote, they could potentially block it.

These are three senators that have public strong doubts and issues with this package, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Jerry Moran.

All of them have problems with either global health cuts, including to PEPFAR, HIV/AIDS prevention money, or to public broadcasting money.

So just one more on top of that, then the Republicans would have a problem.

My reporting is that there are somewhere between a total of a dozen and maybe even more Republican senators who do want to change this bill.

They have those same problems with global health and also with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting factors.

Now Susan Collins is absolutely key.

She is trying to write amendments to change the bill, which they have the power to do.

We talked to our colleague Kevin William -- Kevin Miller at Maine Public about the dynamics around Collins.

KEVIN MILLER, Maine Public: Senator Collins is actually the only Republican member of Congress from New England right now.

So she frequently has to kind of balance those interests, where she gets a lot of pressure from Democrats to oppose particularly things that President Trump is doing.

But the Republican base up here in Maine is strongly in support -- seems to be strongly in support of what President Trump is doing.

So she gets pressure from there.

LISA DESJARDINS: Our thanks to Kevin Miller there.

Now, what's interesting is that President Trump, in a sign that there were real concerns about the public broadcasting piece in particular, sent out a post last week really threatening people, ramping up the pressure there.

He wrote on TRUTH Social that any Republican who votes to allow PBS and NPR funding is someone that he would not endorse.

Now, that puts the pressure on a lot of those rural senators that are really in conversations now, like Shelley Moore Capito in West Virginia, those kinds of folks.

And, of course, as our viewers know, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting partially funds local stations all around the country and some funding ends up here at "News Hour" as well.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So what happens now?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right, right.

Tell us, please.

What is going to happen?

As you and I speak, there are groups of Republican senators trying to work out amendments.

And I think whatever Susan Collins proposes could be the most important amendment out of all of it.

But let's go through the timeline because that's very important here.

It's a critical week, absolutely.

The deadline, as we said, is Friday, at the end of the day, Friday, the midnight at the end of the day.

Now, if you go back to what's going to happen, first votes will be tomorrow.

Senate will start voting on procedural motions.

Then, Wednesday and Thursday is when we expect, probably Wednesday, the Senate to have their final votes.

I do expect them to change the bill.

That means the House has to vote again.

So then, where do you get to?

The House likely voting on Thursday or Friday.

And, reminder, there's that deadline on Friday.

So they are cutting this very close.

There is a world where some who oppose these cuts are hoping they run out of time.

There could be a problem in the House.

Right now, I think the path is more likely that this bill changes.

How it will change is the most important thing.

Could it get tied up?

Yes.

This is the 119th Congress.

Anything is possible.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lisa Desjardins, as always, thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.