MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Today, the House of Representatives voted to claw back two years of federal funding for public broadcasting. Largely party-line vote, the bill heads to the Senate next. NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh is at the Capitol. She joins us now. And I need to add our usual disclaimer that no NPR News executives had any input into this story. Hi, Deirdre.
DEIRDRE WALSH, BYLINE: Hey there, Mary Louise.
KELLY: So broadly, this represents, Deirdre, the first request from the Trump administration to claw back, to rescind money that Congress already approved. How much did they cut and which programs?
WALSH: So this package had a total of 9.4 billion in spending cuts. You already mentioned public media. The bill wipes away the full 1.1 billion Congress approved just months ago, in a spending bill that Trump signed, for the next two fiscal years. That means if the Senate also approves this bill, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will not receive any federal money. That's money it uses for grants to public radio and television stations and for programming it supports. Direct federal funding makes up roughly 1% of NPR's annual budget, but member stations on average get about 8- to 10% of their budgets from CPB. NPR's president and CEO, Katherine Maher, noted the close vote and bipartisan support in her statement. She urged the Senate to, quote, "affirm the very real support for public media across the nation, and to reject rescission, maintaining critical services for Americans across the nation."
KELLY: Now, we said this is a $9 billion package. What about the other 8 or so billion in cuts?
WALSH: Those target foreign aid, and they cut programs like PEPFAR. It's a global health initiative to combat HIV and AIDS created by President George W. Bush. The bill also cut hunger relief programs at UNICEF, international disaster aid. Republicans during today's debate argued that these programs that they were targeting were wasteful. They ticked through some examples of foreign assistance for climate-related programs they said weren't in the U.S. interest. And they said this was just the beginning of Republican efforts to claw back money for programs they oppose. Ohio Republican Jim Jordan summed it up this way.
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JIM JORDAN: This bill's real simple. Don't spend money on stupid things and don't subsidize biased media.
KELLY: Deirdre, let me loop back to public broadcasting, which has been a political hot potato for decades. Congress has debated defunding NPR and PBS for decades. Situate us in this moment.
WALSH: You're right. I mean, conservatives have been trying to defund public broadcasting for decades, going back, you know, to the '90s. In Trump's second term, there's really been a broad effort as part of his sort of culture wars to label mainstream media organizations. Public media are uniquely vulnerable in this environment. You know, others or corporate media don't need federal funding. Trump targeted NPR and PBS with an executive order back in May, directing CPB not to fund them. He's been arguing the outlets are ideologically biased. During the debate today, Texas Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett defended public broadcasters like NPR and PBS for what he said - and said they were targeted for presenting the truth.
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LLOYD DOGGETT: Trump doesn't want a country of engaged, informed Americans. He prefers those who salute on command.
KELLY: Deirdre, in just a sentence or two, this goes next to the Senate, will they approve it?
WALSH: It's unclear. If four Republicans break, they can block the bill. Some have expressed concerns with the cuts to global health and public broadcasting.
KELLY: Right.
WALSH: They do have a July 18 deadline.
KELLY: NPR's Deirdre Walsh, thanks.
WALSH: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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