The Senate considers the termination package that would strip $ 9.4 billion for public bordcasting and foreign aid.
Ailsa Chang, host:
The Senate is occupying a $ 9 billion package in expenses of expenses requested by the Trump administration. The cuts are aimed at foreign aid and public transmission programs. The leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, says that Republicans are using this bill to reduce government size.
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John Thune: Clearly, this is something that we all believe is a priority. When it has a debt of $ 36 billion, we have to do something to control the expense.
Chang: The correspondent of the NPR Congress, Deirdre Walsh, has been covering this and now joins the Capitol. And just a note: no NPR executive has had a hand in this coverage, right, Deirdre?
Deirdre Walsh, byline: exactly correct.
Chang: OK, then the house approved the White House application for these cuts last month. Have the Senate Republicans done any change in what the camera approved?
Walsh: Yes, they have done it. The original Trump administration application proposes $ 9.4 billion in cuts. But a program that the senators of both parties opposed the reduction was the $ 400 million cut in the program called Pepfar. That is the global public health program established by President George W. Bush that provides resources to combat HIV and AIDS.
Chang: correct.
Walsh: The program has been very successful, saving millions of lives. Therefore, the Republicans of the Senate worked with the administration, decided to take it out of the package, and now advance with legislation that reduces a total of 8 billion to other foreign aid programs and approximately one billion in cuts for public media.
Chang: Yes, and I saw that some Senate Republicans were pressing to preserve federal funds for public transmission in their states of origin. Did you get any of those changes?
Walsh: They did. As you said, there is the leg this group that has leg raising groups on the impact of cuts, mainly in rural areas. South Dakota’s Republican senator Mike Rounds specifically argued that radio stations served as American native populations in their native state had to be supported. The Essential negotiated a parallel agreement with the Administration and says that they accept to reprogram about $ 9 million in money from a program in the interior department and use that money to go to 28 radio stations in nine states that serve American native communities.
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Mike Rounds: I had concerns specifically about the impact on these radio stations found in rural areas, with people who have basically few less resources, and who, for me, were trapped in crossfire in the public transmission.
Walsh: But this bill still eliminates two years of federal funds that Congress has already approved earlier this year for the Corporation for Public Transmission. It is not clear that this agreement that Rounds obtained will tell other Republicans such as Susan Collins de Maine, Lisa Murkowski or Alaska. They still want federal money for public radio in their states of origin. For their part, the Democrats cut, you know, they criticized Republicans for reducing funds for foreign aid and public transmission. The Democratic Senator of New Mexico, Ben Ray Lujan, who has just visited floods in his native state, argued that the cuts in this bill will affect communities throughout the country that depend on public media to deal with natural disasters.
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Ben Ray Lujan: But it is local AM radio or public transmission that can still carry a signal to warn him to leave his home. It is almost the time you move. Prepare your things. You need to get out of there. Something comes.
Chang: Ok, well, Deirdre, with thesis changes in the camera version, do you think this bill will really pass in the Senate?
Walsh: You know, the Republicans I talked to this afternoon seem to be quite sure that they will get there. They are still negotiating, but they plan to move forward with a procedure vote later tonight to start discussing the bill. Republicans can only lose three votes and can still approve it: three Republican votes. They are using this process to obtain a film a filibuster in the Senate. All Democrats are expected to vote No. If the Senate approves this, the camera will have to vote on it, and the deadline is this Friday at midnight. If Congress does not address the bill, money must be released.
CHANG: That is the NPR Deirdre Walsh. Thanks Deirdre.
Walsh: Thank you, Ailsa.
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