The Senate handed Donald Trump‘s set of spending cuts to rescind $1.1 billion from public media, regardless of warnings that the funding rollbacks will devastate the PBS, NPR and public station ecosystem.
The vote early on Thursday was 51-48, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) becoming a member of all Democrats and independents in voting in opposition to. The invoice now goes to the Home for last passage.
The cuts have been a part of a $9 billion rescissions bundle, with Republicans additionally voting to slash international assist and well being applications.
Public media has confronted funding battles all through its historical past, courting to the Sixties, however they’ve to this point beat again such efforts when bipartisan help got here via in Congress.
This time round, Trump has threatened to withhold help and endorsements from any lawmaker who doesn’t vote for the cuts, as he has attacked PBS and NPR for alleged left-wing bias. It’s simply his newest effort to attempt to undermine media shops for protection he dislikes.
However advocates of public media say that, if federal funding is eradicated, it’s the stations, together with these in rural markets, that can face the best disaster, as they rely extra closely on funding from the Company for Public Broadcasting.
All through the day on Wednesday, senators debated the rescissions bundle and voted on a collection of amendments, together with those who would retain funding for rural stations and people on tribal lands. However these amendments have been defeated.
As the ultimate vote neared, Murkowski sought to sway fellow Republicans, noting that public media stations in her state helped warn residents after a 7.3 earthquake struck off the Alaska Peninsula.
“Some colleagues declare they’re concentrating on ‘radical leftist organizations’ with these cuts, however in Alaska, these are merely organizations devoted to their communities,” she wrote on X. “Their response to at this time’s earthquake is an ideal instance of the unimaginable public service these stations present. They ship native information, climate updates, and, sure, emergency alerts that save human lives.”
She added, “The tsunami warnings at the moment are fortunately canceled, however the warning to the U.S. Senate stays in impact. In the present day of all days, we must always vote down these misguided cuts to public broadcasting.”
Earlier, she had written that “we’re lawmakers. Our accountability is to legislate, to not shrug our shoulders and take path from the White Home.”
Extra to return.