Latest news with #Klobuchar
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Klobuchar says rural radio stations would go under due to GOP cuts
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said on Wednesday that rural radio stations in her home state could go out of business due to a rescissions package moving through Congress seeking to cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). 'My hope is that we find some way to get through this, and so we don't see a bunch of rural stations going under, which is what will happen and it won't be the big city ones, it will be the rural ones,' Klobuchar told The Hill's Alex Bolton at the Hill Nation Summit. The bill, which the House passed in June, includes around $8 billion in cuts for the United States Agency for International Development and another $1 billion cut to CPB. Some GOP senators, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), have expressed concerns about the proposed cuts to public broadcasting. Klobuchar, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, discussed the roles radio and television stations play in Minnesota's rural communities. 'These rural stations are often the lifeblood of these communities when it comes to emergency alerts,' Klobuchar said, pointing to the station's coverage of air quality and wildfires in neighboring Canada. 'These are things that, they sound small, but they are what bring communities together,' she said. Klobuchar said on Wednesday that she has been contacted by former Republican state legislators in Minnesota who live in rural areas and sit on the boards of local TV stations. 'We know there's going to be some changes to the bill, so it's going to go back to the House. So I was disappointed in the vote last night. I think we should be asserting our power,' the Minnesota Democrat said. Senate Republicans argue that they have enough votes to pass the package, which would be another victory for President Trump, who signed his 'big, beautiful' reconciliation package into law on July 4. Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, struck a side agreement with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) to repurpose Interior Department money to aid around 28 radio stations in 14 states that broadcast on tribal lands. Minutes before Klobuchar spoke on Wednesday, Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said that CPB, the nonprofit that helps to fund PBS and NPR, was 'an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.' 'I don't think that's the role of the federal government,' said the Texas Republican. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
16-07-2025
- Business
- The Hill
AI, Musk, & Trump's Plan to Make Canada The 51st State: Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said on Wednesday that rural radio stations in her home state could go out of business due to a rescissions package moving through Congress seeking to cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). 'My hope is that we find some way to get through this, and so we don't see a bunch of rural stations going under, which is what will happen and it won't be the big city ones, it will be the rural ones,' Klobuchar told The Hill's Alex Bolton at the Hill Nation Summit.
The Hill
16-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Klobuchar says rural stations would go under due to GOP cuts
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said on Wednesday that rural radio stations in her home state could go out of business due to a recession package moving through Congress seeking to cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). 'My hope is that we find some way to get through this, and so we don't see a bunch of rural stations going under, which is what will happen and it won't be the big city ones, it will be the rural ones,' Klobuchar told The Hill's Alex Bolton at the Hill Nation Summit. The bill, which the House passed in June, includes around $8 billion in cuts for the United States Agency for International Development and another $1 billion cut to CPB. Some GOP senators, including Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), have expressed concerns over the proposed cuts to public broadcasting. Klobuchar, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, discussed the roles radio and television stations play in Minnesota's rural communities. 'These rural stations are often the lifeblood of these communities when it comes to emergency alerts,' Klobuchar said, pointing to the station's coverage of air quality and wildfires in neighboring Canada. 'These are things that, they sound small, but they are what bring communities together,' she said. Klobuchar said on Wednesday that she has been contacted by former Republican state legislators in Minnesota, who live in rural areas and sit on the boards of local TV stations. 'We know there's going to be some changes to the bill, so it's going to go back to the House. So I was disappointed in the vote last night. I think we should be asserting our power,' the Minnesota Democrat said. Senate Republicans argue that they have enough votes to pass the package, which would be another victory for President Trump, who signed his 'big, beautiful' reconciliation package into law on July 4. Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, struck a side agreement with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) to repurpose Interior Department money to aid around 28 radio stations in 14 states that broadcast on tribal lands. Minutes before Klobuchar spoke on Wednesday, Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said that CPB, the nonprofit that funds PBS and NPR, was 'an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.' 'I don't think that's the role of the federal government,' said the Texas Republican.
The Hill
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Klobuchar ‘very disappointed' in Murkowski over ‘big, beautiful bill' support
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is criticizing Sen. Lisa Murkowski for the Alaska Republican's decisive vote to advance the GOP's 'big, beautiful bill' last week. 'I was very disappointed, putting it mildly,' Klobuchar told MSNBC host Jen Psaki. Klobuchar also attacked a provision in the bill that will delay federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for states with high payment error rates, which includes Alaska. 'They wanted to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse? They're actually encouraging it,' she said. 'If I'm a governor in a state, I'm like, 'get my error rate up,' because it could save me a billion dollars a year on a state budget.' Murkowski extracted several concessions from GOP leadership over an agonizing and overnight Senate session last week, many of them specific to her state. It took several attempts to design a change to SNAP funding that would blunt the impact to Alaska, at least temporarily. An earlier provision that carved out exemptions for Alaska and Hawaii as 'noncontiguous' states came under fire from Democrats, including Klobuchar, and was ultimately axed by the Senate parliamentarian. GOP leaders instead settled on the use of error rates in order to comply with the Senate's rules around budget reconciliation. Still, after voting to advance the bill, Murkowski signaled that she was still not wholly satisfied, calling on the House to improve it. However, in the face of potential defections from their side over the size of the national debt and insistence from the White House that it should pass, House Republicans elected to ram the bill through un-amended. Klobuchar and Murkowski have worked together on occasion, introducing legislation to combat fetal alcohol disorders and regulate AI-generated content in political ads. The Alaska senator is known for her independent streak and has broken with her party on key votes such as the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, which she opposed. Klobuchar said people will lose Medicaid coverage as a result of the legislation. 'I think the people that are going to be really upset are the people who are going to be thrown off their health care,' Klobuchar said, citing an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office that 17 million Americans could lose their health insurance over ten years.
Miami Herald
07-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Questions Raised Over SNAP Costs Being Delayed for Some States
New rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) have been questioned by Democratic lawmakers. The bill, which is the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's domestic policy, introduces some new financial commitments for states that fail to hold down erroneous payments. Under the new rules, states would for the first time be required to pay toward the cost of SNAP benefits if they have an error payment rate of above 6 percent, starting in 2028. The U.S. Department of Agriculture currently funds the entire cost of benefits. But carve-outs in the final bill mean that some states may be able to avoid paying, which Democrats have said is "hypocrisy." The SNAP funding changes will mean that many already-strained state budgets will need to pay up if they fail to keep their error rate below 6 percent. As it stands, based on 2024 error rates, 37 states will need to begin paying for a share of benefits, although there is time for states to reduce improper payments before the policy begins in 2028. Under the legislation, starting in the 2028 fiscal year, states can use either 2025 or 2026 error rate to calculate the percentage of benefits it must pay. For 2029 and thereafter, states will use the payment error rate for the third fiscal year preceding the fiscal year for which the state share is being calculated. For example, in 2029, states will use the 2026 error rate to calculate the share. However, the Republican-backed plan permits a two-year delay in implementation for states with payment error rates of about 13.34 percent or higher—a move Republicans say is intended to help states with high error rates reduce them. Democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Brian Schatz of Hawaii have taken issue with the legislation. Klobuchar said that under the bill, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington, D.C., will be exempt from having to pay for a portion of benefits. Alaska is a key state in the situation. Senator Lisa Murkowski cast a crucial vote for the bill to pass in the Senate last week after she secured the two-year reprieve for the states with the highest error rates. Alaska has the highest error rate in the country at 24.66 percent, which has come down significantly in recent years. Glenn Thompson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP, said the Senate "had to add something to get to address that challenge that Alaska has." "The goal is, from a functionality perspective, they need to get their error rate down as soon as possible, because when the time comes, and they have to start to pay, they don't want to be that high error rate that you're coming in now," he said. But Klobuchar and Schatz have taken issue with the policy, which the Minnesota senator said was "absurd." "The most absurd example of the hypocrisy of the Republican bill: they have now proposed delaying SNAP cuts FOR TWO YEARS ONLY FOR STATES with the highest error rates just to bury their help for Alaska," Klobuchar wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Schatz said he had contacted Hawaii Governor Josh Green regarding the policy, and said the 10 states included in the reprieve are "the ones with the MOST ERRORS in administering the program." Hawaii has made good work of reducing its erroneous payment rate, which now stands at 6.68 percent, a significant drop from 20.94 percent in 2023. "And because he [Governor Josh Green] did good work in reducing the error rate by 15 percent, we are not exempt," Schatz said. Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Democrat,on X following the passage of the OBBBA in the Senate: "In the SNAP program, we have added tribal exemptions for work requirements, delayed cost-share penalties to help Alaska get benefits to the people who need them, and included work requirement waivers that align with our Medicaid policies. We also secured commitments from the Secretary of Agriculture to provide additional flexibilities to Alaska for SNAP. "But, let's not kid ourselves. This has been an awful process—a frantic rush to meet an artificial deadline that has tested every limit of this institution. While we have worked to improve the present bill for Alaska, it is not good enough for the rest of our nation—and we all know it." Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, on X: "We are being penalized. And if you keep your error rate high you get another year reprieve! This bill is chock full of crazy, stupid policies written in a hurry, some by hand, in the margins of a bill." Related Articles Here's When Each Part of Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Takes EffectWill You Be Better Off Under Trump's Big Beautiful Bill? What to KnowMap Shows How SNAP Bills Would Rise For States Under Trump BillSNAP Benefits Set to Change in Trump's Tax Bill: What to Know 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
