Rounds, GOP holdout, says he'll back Trump's funding cuts package

The Hill

6 days ago

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said he'll support a package of more than $9 billion in cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting after making a deal with the Trump administration.
Rounds said Tuesday that he worked with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on a deal that would redirect some funding approved under the Biden administration as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
'We have an agreement with OMB to resource the funds from other already allocated funding through what had been Biden's Green New Deal program, and we'll take that money and we'll reallocate it back into the tribes to take care of these radio stations that have been granted this money for the next two years,' Rounds told reporters Tuesday.
Rounds had previously held off from backing the package, citing concerns about how tribal stations would fare under Trump's proposed public media cuts.
The shift comes as top Senate Republicans are ramping up work to lock down support for Trump's package to claw back previously congressionally approved funds. Republicans can afford to lose three votes in the Senate.
The bill, which passed the House last month, calls for $8.3 billion in cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and foreign aid, and more than $1 billion in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
Congress has until July 18 to pass the legislation under the special rescissions process initiated by the White House last month that allows the Senate to approve the funding cuts with a simple majority vote, bypassing likely Democratic opposition.
While CPB provides some funding to NPR and PBS, which have come under heavy GOP scrutiny as the party has leveled allegations of bias against the media organizations, Republicans in both chambers have raised concerns the cuts could have a disproportionate effect on rural and tribal stations.
Asked Tuesday whether a parallel deal for non-tribal broadcasters was also in the works, Rounds said he is 'not aware of any of those.'
'The ones that I was concerned with were specifically these tribal grants. I think there were 14 total,' Rounds said.
'Some of them might be 50 percent funded under this program,' Rounds said. 'Some of them are 80-85 percent funded.'
'They wouldn't have survived without this, but they provide emergency services information for some of the most rural parts of our country and some of the poorest counties in the United States.'