Democrats say Trump cuts decimate public media, GOP leaders plan vote to defund and PBS
As GOP congressional leaders are vowing to move full steam ahead to approve the president’s request to eliminate all federal funding for public media for the next 2 years a group of 29 Senate Democrats are warning the broadcast outlets should be “protected, not decimated.”
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune these Senators argue the proposed clawback of money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) “would have detrimental effects on local stations, which rely on this funding to provide critical services to millions of Americans across the country.”
Most Hill Republicans expressed support for the package, but a few raised concerns about some of the cuts to State Department programs. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins told reporters she could not back the proposed cuts to PEPFAR, a public health program created by President George W. Bush to address HIV/AIDS. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the chamber would act on the package soon. Under the rescissions rules Congress has 45 days to act and the House is scheduled to vote first next week. The Senate can then approve the package with a simple majority and with the GOP holding a 53 seat majority it’s unclear if there are 4 Republican votes to block the package.
The Democratic Senators’ letter notes the “vast majority” of CPB money is allocated to local radio and television stations. They say the cuts “will have an immediate and significant impact for stations in rural communities that heavily rely on CPB funding to provide critical services and could likely result in the elimination of programming or outright closure of stations in areas already faced with limited connectivity.” They urge Thune to maintain “full funding” for CPB.
“The proposal, which is explicitly viewpoint-based and aimed at controlling and punishing content, violates the Public Broadcasting Act, the First Amendment, and the Due Process Clause,” Maher said in a statement.
No Senate Republican signed the letter, led by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., but Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski voiced support for public media in an editorial in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner earlier this month. She said the loss of funding for local stations in her home state would be “devastating.”
“Not only would a large portion of Alaska communities lose their local programming, but warning systems for natural disasters, power outages, boil water advisories, and other alerts would be severely hampered. What may seem like a frivolous expense to some has proven to be an invaluable resource that saves lives in Alaska,” Murkowski wrote.
A group of 104 House Democrats led by New York Rep. Dan Goldman, sent a letter on Tuesday to the top Republican and Democrat on the House spending panel that oversees CPB. “Without federal support for public broadcasting, many localities would struggle to receive timely, reliable local news and educational content, especially remote and rural communities that commercial newsrooms are increasingly less likely to invest in,” the lawmakers wrote.