Missouri and Illinois senators are at odds over legislation clawing back money for public broadcasting and foreign aid.
Senators are debating what’s known as a rescission package, which would effectively cancel authorization for funds that Congress already appropriated. It’s a major priority for President Donald Trump, who has threatened to not endorse Republican senators who don’t support the package for reelection.
The measure also would strip out billions of dollars in foreign aid.
The legislation would rescind more than $1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – which provides money to PBS and NPR affiliates, like Nine PBS in St. Louis and St. Louis Public Radio, across the country.
Missouri GOP Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt voted to proceed with the legislation on Tuesday, while Illinois Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin opposed moving forward with debate.
Schmitt is handling the legislation on the floor. He said on Tuesday that the bill corresponds with what voters approved when they brought Trump back to the White House last year.
“In a time of extraordinary debt, this bill is a first step in a long but necessary fight to put our nation's fiscal house in order,” Schmitt said. “But it's about much more than just that, this package isn't just about how much we spend but about what we spend it on. It's about whether or not we're still a sovereign nation, a people in command of our own destiny.”
During his speech on Tuesday, Schmitt dubbed NPR and PBS “American Pravda” – a reference to the Soviet Union's communist publication. He pointed to prior comments made by NPR CEO Katherine Maher and former NPR editor Uri Berliner that he said show the public radio company’s bias.
“They are the arms of the left-wing activist class, taxpayer-funded platforms for political propaganda masquerading as journalism,” Schmitt said.
Durbin said the cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will hurt rural America the most – especially because some of those stations depend on CPB funds to operate. He also said the cuts to foreign aid could backfire.
“This is the reputation of the United States as to whether we care,” Durbin said. “This is why American defense officials have even told us for generations that they support these programs. As they say, it's far cheaper than military intervention and wildly effective.”
Durbin said the debate isn’t about cutting wasteful spending – but rather obedience to Trump.
“There's no doubt about it. There's a risk for the Republicans who stand up for principle. The president has turned this vote away from a discussion of the merits of the cuts … into a loyalty test,” Durbin said. “Donald Trump doesn't care about the impact of these cuts. He only cares about the bended knee, the craven congressman, the servile senator.”
In an interview Wednesday evening before the Senate vote, Duckworth said she doesn’t know if she and her Democratic colleagues can persuade a fourth Republican to break from the GOP’s majority to block the bill from passing out of the Senate.
“When push comes to shove, they are always able to make a deal, and one of them folds,” Duckworth said. “And so they always win the vote, with JD Vance coming in to cast a tie breaker. It's really bad.”
Three Republican Senators — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — voted with Democrats in a procedural vote on Tuesday. Vice President Vance broke the 50-50 tie to advance the legislation.
Because Republicans are planning to revise the bill, it will need to go back to the House in order to go to Trump’s desk. Unlike other legislation, rescission bills only need a majority vote to pass.
