Rescission threat remains for public media funding

Does Murkowski’s vote this week signal more trouble ahead?

The people working to protect public media’s federal funding put out the word this week, asking for another round of calls to key legislators. The Senate Appropriations Committee could take up the White House’s request to claw back funding for USAID and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the next few days. (There’s nothing on the calendar yet, and the rescission request automatically expires July 18 if they don’t move on the matter.)

Thanks in part to a report from Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, the news that rescission threatens the nationwide emergency alert system (built with millions in taxpayer money) has gotten a lot of attention, including that of the Senators.

We have collected and shared many other stories of how rescission could hurt rural communities in this and other ways, and we’ve got more this week from western North Carolina, southern Idaho, along with Shreveport and the rest of northwestern Louisiana.

Stories following this week’s budget vote in the Senate didn’t look back at the first version of HR1, which called for the end of federal funding of public media altogether. We have not yet found such a statement in the Senate’s engrossed version of HR1. It seems, for now, Congress isn’t going along with the end of future appropriations.

But it’s important to remember that Congress has not been developing and passing budgets in the way that it is supposed to. A budget can serve as a comprehensive and strategic policy document, but the last time Congress delivered one to the American people was in 1997.

Instead, HR1 is a reconciliation bill. A reconciliation bill is a specific type of legislation in the United States Congress designed to expedite the passage of budget-related measures, such as changes to spending, revenues, or the debt limit. It bypasses the typical 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate, allowing for passage with a simple majority of 51 votes.

A reliable source reminded us that “reconciliation deals with the limits on future appropriations for mandatory spending categories.” Congress funded public media in another reconciliation bill earlier this year—and that’s what the White House is trying to claw back. Pen America summed it up best, saying “this is politically motivated to suppress independent fact-based journalism.”

Which brings us to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. She’s getting a lot of heat for voting for HR1 after she held out for specific concessions to protect Alaskans from the bill’s harmful elements. During last week’s hearing on the rescission, she spoke at length on what the cuts to public media would mean to Alaskans. Other Republican senators seemed to be seeking carve-outs for their states in exchange for their overall support of the claw backs.

If that type of decision-making prevails, we can likely expect emergency communication infrastructure to become a casualty of friendly fire.

Communications Act of 1934, Sect. 326.

Nothing in this Act shall be understood or construed to give the Commission the power of censorship over the radio communications or signals transmitted by any radio station, and no regulation or condition shall be promulgated or fixed by the Commission which shall interfere with the right of free speech by means of radio communication.