A bill to defund public broadcasting of about $1 billion and claw back more than $8 billion in foreign aid has cleared its first hurdle in the U.S. Senate.
Fifty Republican senators voted yes on a procedural motion to consider the bill Tuesday evening. With the tie-breaking vote of Vice President JD Vance, the bill has enough support to get to the Senate floor for debate and possible amendment.
Sen. Dan Sullivan voted yes on taking up the bill. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is one of of three Republicans who voted against the preliminary measure. She said public broadcasting is vital, particularly for rural areas.
“It's not just your news,” she said, just before Tuesday’s vote. “It's your tsunami alerts. It is your landslide alert. It is your volcano alert. It is the weather to let you know it's safe to go out and get on the fishing grounds. It's your educational programming. I am going to continue to be an advocate for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
More importantly, Murkowski said, it’s Congress’s job to appropriate money, and the White House hasn’t even specified which specific programs would be rescinded.
Next, the Senate will vote on a long series of amendments, a process referred to as "vote-a-rama," which can stretch on all day and night. A final vote is expected late Wednesday or Thursday.
Senate Republican leaders have already made changes to bring a few Republican holdouts on board. They ditched a plan to cut an international AIDS program known as PEPFAR. They’re also restoring other specific overseas health and nutrition programs.
So far, the bill still rescinds roughly $1 billion dollars — two years of funding — for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. To win over Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, the administration promised to use other funds to keep 28 tribal stations in nine states going. It’s not clear that any of those are in Alaska.
About 4,000 miles from the Capitol, in Bethel, Kristin Hall was following the action closely. She’s the interim general manager of KYUK, a radio and TV station that’s not tribally owned.
“Truly, we're all kind of on pins and needles. It feels almost surreal,” she said.
KYUK broadcasts across the vast Yukon-Kuskokwim delta, reaching an area roughly the size of South Dakota. About 70% of its funding comes from the federal government, through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Hall said the rescission would decimate the station.
“We would have to cut a majority of our staff,” she said. “Our services would be just really stripped down to the bare minimum.”
In addition to saving money, the rescission achieves long-standing policy ideals for conservative Republicans who want to shrink America’s role in international aid and feel public broadcasting doesn’t reflect their perspectives.
The U.S. House narrowly passed the bill last month, with the help of Alaska Congressman Nick Begich. If the Senate makes changes, it will have to go back to the House. The bill has to become law by Friday or the rescissions measure expires.
Editor’s note: Alaska Public Media receives funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This story was written and edited within the Alaska Public Media newsroom. No Alaska Public Media corporate officials read it before publication.
