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 rescind authorization for funds that Congress already appropriated. It’s a major priority for President Donald Trump, who even threatened to not endorse Republican senators who don’t support the package.
Among other things, it would strip out billions of dollars worth of foreign aid.
The legislation also would rescind more than a billion dollars 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. And he said on Tuesday that the bill corresponds with what voters approved when they brought President Donald 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 a communist publication during the time of the Soviet Union. 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.”
Because Republicans are planning to revise the bill, it will need to go back to the House in order to go to President Trump’s desk. Unlike other legislation, rescission bills only need a majority vote to pass.
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