US President Donald Trump has signed a bill to cancel $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funding, CBS News and Opb.org report.

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields announced on Thursday that the package had been officially signed into law.

This is the first time in a decade that the US Congress has granted a president's request to cancel previously approved budget appropriations.

Most of the funds removed were intended for foreign aid programs. About $1.1 billion was allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS. Most of those funds are distributed to more than 1,500 local public radio and television stations across the country.

The White House has described the bill as a test case for Congress and said similar repeal packages will follow.

The Trump administration has added that the US public broadcasting system is politically biased and an unnecessary financial burden.

Conservatives have particularly criticized NPR and PBS. But lawmakers representing large rural counties have expressed serious concerns about how these cuts to public broadcasting funding could affect local stations in their states. Some of those stations, they say, could be forced to close.

Regarding the aid cuts, the White House has said that it would encourage other countries to step up their efforts to respond to humanitarian crises and that the withdrawal of funds is in the best interests of American taxpayers.

But Democrats argue that the Republican administration’s hostility to foreign aid programs will damage the United States’ international standing and create a vacuum that China could fill.

Also, they expressed concern that these cuts could have disastrous consequences for the world’s poorest people.

In particular, the final version of the bill removed a $400 million cut that was originally planned to be taken from the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in an attempt to appease critics.

The Trump administration has pledged to find an alternative source of funding to support regional broadcasters to provide additional support.

At the same time, Republicans have said that this package will be the first of several aimed at recovering funds that they call waste, fraud and abuse.