Latest news with #RescissionsAct
San Francisco Chronicle
22-07-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
This Northern California PBS station will lose half its budget to Trump cuts
KEET-TV transmitted its first lineup of fledgling programming from inside a garage before moving atop what locals call 'Humboldt Hill' in 1975. The hilltop station overlooking Eureka has, for decades, broadcast a mix of national and local programming. Its lean staff has produced documentaries chronicling suicide prevention and drug addiction across Humboldt County. It has carried classics like 'Mr. Rogers' and 'Sesame Street.' Now, the station is at risk of becoming a casualty of President Donald Trump's plans to claw back $9 billion in funds for public broadcasting and foreign aid. The cuts will hurt all public broadcasters, but for smaller stations the sudden loss of funding could be catastrophic. Northern California's rural public TV stations will lose the largest shares of their budgets in the region, putting them at the greatest risk of shuttering. Smaller stations nationwide are facing similar crises. 'We've been watching this in slow motion,' said Robert Stein, KEET's interim director of development. Nearly half of KEET's budget — about $700,000 — has historically come from federal funds, making it one of the state's most vulnerable stations under the recently passed Rescissions Act. In an open letter to the community Friday, KEET's Executive Director David Gordon told viewers the station would be forced to 'make painful cuts to both staff and programming in the days ahead.' California's rural TV stations are awaiting a Wednesday meeting with the PBS national office to learn more about what the broadcaster may be able to offer them. If nothing were to change regarding how PBS bills rural stations, most — if not all — would no longer be able to afford remaining affiliated stations, Stein said. 'The immediate impact on this is existential,' he said. 'Junk spending' On Friday, the House gave the Rescissions Act final approval, making what KEET and others in public broadcasting feared a reality. The Republican-led House passed the bill by a 216-213 vote along party lines. Trump has called tax dollars to local broadcasting wasteful spending. His May executive order directing federal agencies to cut off funding argued NPR and PBS both don't present 'fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events' — something the broadcasters have adamantly refuted. 'We're cutting junk spending, foreign aid giveaways, woke public broadcasting, and other bloated programs that do nothing for the average American,' Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Redding, posted to X following the House vote. LaMalfa's district includes another at-risk PBS affiliate, KIXE. The station has historically received about 37% of its budget from the federal funds, said General Manager Rob Keenan. LaMalfa told the Chronicle on Monday he is sympathetic to rural stations such as KIXE, but said it isn't taxpayers' place to prop them up. 'We're looking at every place to try and save tax dollars and narrow that $2 trillion deficit down to something more responsible,' he said. Under the prior system, PBS stations would receive about half their annual funding in early October. The allocation is timed with when broadcasters are supposed to pay their bill to carry national PBS programming. KIXE joined the Public Broadcasting Service network in 1969. In 2020, it began broadcasting online. 'We are the system we have,' said Keenan, the KIXE manager. 'Especially in rural areas, especially in smaller markets, you don't have public media without an infusion of federal money.' There isn't the same concentration of wealthy donors in rural California as there is in the Bay Area, he said. 'Some of the bigger stations are going to fare it better, but not necessarily,' Keenan said. 'Story of a community' San Francisco's two NPR affiliate stations are already campaigning for donors to help make up the shortfall. For KQED, that's a staggering $8 million per year — about 8% of its $100 million budget for both TV and radio. For KALW, a smaller FM station, the funding cuts represent about $400,000, or about 7%, of its budget. 'I don't think we would stop streaming NPR,' Kass said. 'For us, like most stations, it will affect our ability to do local programming.' Before the cuts were finalized on the Hill, KQED — San Francisco's leading NPR affiliate — had already announced plans to cut 15% of its staff, or 45 positions. 'The defunding of public media poses grave financial challenges for NPR, PBS, and all local stations like KQED,' CEO Michael Isip said in a statement. 'This cut will be especially devastating for smaller stations and some will shut down in the coming months or years.' Because so much of the NPR system is linked, the cuts will likely mean fewer opportunities for stories originating in smaller cities across the country to make their way to California listeners.
Newsweek
17-07-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
How Republicans Can Prove They're Serious About the National Debt
The Republican Party's unified control of Congress and the White House is on borrowed time. Facing a $37 trillion national debt, the elected officials the grassroots sent to Washington with a mandate to cut spending are waffling over whether to eliminate $9.4 billion, which is to say 0.00025 percent of the debt. If the GOP cannot deliver on such low-hanging fruit, it will have squandered a rare opportunity and handed a win to big-government liberals. Lawmakers face two options: Pass the Rescissions Act now or abandon your principles and watch as your voters abandon you. Congress adopted rescissions under the 1974 Impoundment Control Act as a reminder that the legislative branch's power of the purse is not simply to empty the purses of hardworking Americans. It allows the president to propose canceling previously appropriated, unobligated funds, subject to congressional approval within 45 days. The current package targets $8.3 billion in foreign aid—think environmentalist initiatives in Africa—and $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS—think taxpayer-funded propaganda. These are programs many Americans recognize as nonessential, yet they persist because of bureaucratic inertia and political timidity. At a time when every man, woman, and child in America is on the hook for $108,000 to pay off the national debt, the rescissions package would be the equivalent of knocking $27 off the price tag. It is a paltry sum, which means it is even more vital to pass without amendment. WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 1: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) (2nd-L), accompanied by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) (L), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) (2nd-R), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (R), speaks to reporters off the... WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 1: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) (2nd-L), accompanied by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) (L), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) (2nd-R), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (R), speaks to reporters off the Senate floor after the Senate passes President Donald Trump's so-called "One, Big, Beautiful Bill," Act at the U.S. Capitol Building on July 1, 2025 in Washington, DC. MoreThe House vote was razor-thin at 214-212, and the Senate, where a simple majority can pass the package, must act now to avoid expiration. Every defection risks derailing this effort and emboldening liberals to obstruct future reforms. Some Senate Republicans already appear to be wavering. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) must set a clear red line for his colleagues, reminding them that voters deserve the benefit of the doubt over entrenched D.C. insiders. The Rescissions Act isn't about slashing essential services; it's about prioritizing taxpayer dollars over bureaucratic sacred cows. The national debt is an existential threat. The CBO estimates that net interest payments are projected to hit $1 trillion next year, crowding out investments in defense, infrastructure, and tax relief. Every dollar spent on questionable programs—say, for example, the $10 million set aside for "gender programs" in Pakistan that somehow found its way into the domestic COVID relief bill—is a dollar stolen from future generations. The Rescissions Act, though modest at 0.5 percent of discretionary spending, is a critical signal to voters and the market. If Republicans can't rally behind it, they risk surrendering credibility as the party of fiscal sanity. It is time for Congress to reassert its role as the legislature rather than outsource its responsibilities to the executive branch. Elon Musk and DOGE did an admirable job from the White House in flagging $162 billion in improper payments in 2024 alone. Rescissions are the constitutional path to codify these savings, shielding the administration from legal challenges while reasserting Congress' fiscal responsibility. If Republican senators refuse to govern out of concern for their constituents, perhaps they will do so for the sake of their own political survival. Unified government is a rare thing in America—only 15 times since 1900 has one party held the White House, Senate, and House at once. History shows voters punish complacency when lawmakers ignore the mandate that sent them to Washington. In 2018, a $15 billion rescissions package passed the House but died in the Senate, undone by GOP senators prioritizing pet projects. Voters let them have it in the midterms that followed. Democrats clearly have the midterms in mind as they unify behind Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.). Schumer has threatened to shut down the government if the Senate passes these modest cuts. Rather than run scared, Republicans would do well to remember his predecessor, the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). In July 2013, Reid threatened the nuclear option if the GOP did not confirm several of President Barack Obama's radical labor nominees; Republicans capitulated. Reid rewarded that display of cowardice by deploying the nuclear option a few months later. Schumer, no doubt, has similar plans. If he senses wavering from a majority that is more committed to the status quo than its own principles, he will have all the more reason to shut down the government and obstruct future budget reforms. Republicans should make liberals justify their own spendthrift ways, rather than playing defense. The Rescissions Act is a test of whether the GOP can follow the mandate that voters gave them in 2024. Pass the package, unapologetically, and make Schumer and company defend the status quo of borrowing 40 cents on the dollar to pay for liberal pet projects. The choice is clear for Senate Republicans as the July 18 deadline approaches: cut now or pay dearly later. Erick Erickson is host of the nationally syndicated Erick Erickson Show and a member of the Americans for Prosperity Advisory Council. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
