Half a century of US federal funding for television and public radio came to an end abruptly, when the House approved a package of $ 9 billion spending cuts inspired by Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency.
The legislation was approved by 216 votes to 213.
by 51 to 48 votes, and now it goes to the signature of President Donald Trump. In addition to cutting $ 1.1 billion over public broadcasting, the project ends a series of foreign aid projects and closes the US Peace Institute.
White House Budget director Russell Vought said he plans to send more quick measures to Congress, taking advantage of a cancellation procedure that requires only 50 votes to pass the Senate, instead of the usual 60 for annual spending projects.
He did not specify where the cuts would occur, but the administration performed mass layoffs in various departments, including housing and urban development, health and human services and education, resulting in non -spending funds that Congress could formally recover.
The vote in the House was delayed for hours while Republicans resolved a separate dispute over a vote, an investor convicted of sex crimes that died in a federal prison in 2019. The question divided the Republicans, with some asking for the complete release of the files and others maintaining the decision not to do so.
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PBS, NPR
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which finances Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio, will lose all federal funding from October 1st. Great metropolitan stations will likely survive with reinforced sponsorships and donations, but minor rural stations are expected to close.
Republicans, who spent decades trying to eliminate funding to PBs and NPR, said organizations have deviated from their original mission by becoming biased against conservatives.
“If you want leftist advertising, watch MSNBC “But don’t make taxpayers pay for it,” said Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the Senate plenary.
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Defenders of public broadcasting, including Alaska’s Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, argued that there are ways to improve the balance of national political coverage in NPR without “destroying” the local program of stations like those of your state.
“This elimination of federal financing will decimate public media and endanger local stations, which can close, cutting the service to communities that depend on them – many of which have no other access to the media controlled locally,” said the America’s Public Television Stations lobby group in a statement.
The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Susan Collins, from Maine, said in an interview that will try to reign funding for local seasons in the next 2026 budget laws, but not for NPR national, which she claims to have liberal bias.
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Stoppage
Democrats said the approval of the first cancellation project in decades threatens the annual bipartisan process of appropriations. They argue that making deals with republicans to see their priorities are removed in a subsequent project makes the agreements almost impossible.
“Russell Voght now said aloud what was previously said in secret. He says he wants less bipartisanship in Congress. He wants to destroy, destroy the functioning of Congress, destroy the balance of powers, overthrow our entire constitution,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters.
Anosity can result in an impasse that leads to a government stoppage on October 1, the Democrats said.
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Republicans say that there is little to worry about a stoppage. They note that Schumer made threats, but did not cause a stoppage in March, allowing only sufficient democrats to support a temporary extension of the funds until September 30.
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