The U.S. Senate narrowly approved legislation early Thursday that rescinds nearly $9.4 billion in funds, including money intended for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the United States Agency for International Development.
The bill now goes to the House, where it faces a Friday deadline. It would then need to be signed by President Donald Trump.
The potential funding cuts are likely to have a significant impact on rural public radio and television stations that air National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service content.
Paula Kerger, president of PBS, told Scripps News earlier this week that some rural public television stations could close as a result of this bill.
"We'll be working closely to see what we can do. But I really worry very deeply that if these cuts go through, this isn't like a newspaper that goes away and then another newspaper could come back and start up again," she said. "These are television broadcast licenses. And once they're gone, they're gone."
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The Trump administration argues that government funding of news media in "this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence."
In addition to the $1.07 billion in cuts to the CPB, nearly $8 billion in international aid programs are slated to have their funding pulled. The bill cuts $2.5 billion in international development assistance, $1.65 billion in economic support, $900 million in global health programs, $800 million in migration and refugee assistance, and $496 million in international disaster assistance.
The legislation had unanimous opposition from Democrats, but Republicans were nearly united behind the cuts. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins were the only two out of 53 Republican senators to oppose the bill.
“[I]n my view, this shouldn’t be a hard one," Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Fox News on Wednesday. "It’s $9 billion. It’s one-tenth of 1 percent of all federal spending, and it’s a chance for us to claw back some of the waste, fraud, and abuse in a lot of these programs. So I’m hoping, we’re going through an amendment process right now. We’re voting on the floor on a series of amendments, most of them offered by Democrats who are trying to gut the bill. But in the end, I hope we’ll have the votes to pass it.”
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No Democrats voted in favor of the bill. Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith did not vote on the bill.
"Gutting bipartisan investments, compromising our national security, hurting America's standards throughout the world is not popular. Losing access to local news, radio, weather is not popular," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.
