Fischer, Murkowski Concerned About CPB Funding Rescission's Effect on Rural Areas

“It's absolutely the [Trump] administration's right to send us rescissions [requests, but it’s also] our right as a Congress to then figure out whether or not we're going to support them,” Murkowski told Vought. The lawmaker offered a “bird's-eye view of what I consider to be not political when it comes to” CPB in Alaska, noting that it offers federal funding to 22 broadcasters in the state, which, the recipients say, accounts for 24% to 70% of their annual budgets. “Almost to a number, they're saying that they will go under if public broadcasting funds are no longer available to them,” Murkowski said.

She pushed back on Vought’s argument that CPB-funded broadcasters will “have time to readjust their budget, because” the White House isn’t seeking to rescind federal public broadcasting funding for FY 2025. “There is no way to recalibrate,” Murkowski said. “There is no safety valve for them.” The Alaskan said she hopes “you feel the urgency that I'm trying to express on the behalf of the people in rural Alaska, and I think in many parts of rural America, where this is their lifeline.”

Vought countered that “we're to the point [that] for decades, we've had concerns with the extent to which public broadcasting was funding content that was run contrary to the American people, and we've got to get to the point where we can finally deal with that.” The Trump administration believes “we put forward a proposal that gives a run rate to be able to deal with that. But I certainly want to work with you throughout the various opportunities that we have moving forward.”

Fischer, who also chairs the Senate Communications Subcommittee, questioned how rescinding the CPB money would affect “rural radio and the emergency alerts” it broadcasts. “I am very concerned [about] the emergency alerts that come to many places in Nebraska only through that rural radio,” she said. “We are a state of vast, very sparsely populated areas that don’t receive cell service in many cases. It’s difficult even with landlines in many areas.” Fischer wants Vought to help “figure out if we are going to need some replacements for this so that all Americans, no matter where they live, will be able to have access to these alerts … if these stations end up being shuttered.”

Lobbyists said Murkowski’s and other Republicans’ concerns about CPB rescission could hinder Senate passage of the 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4), which the House narrowly cleared earlier this month with the clawback intact, despite some GOP lawmakers’ misgivings (see 2506130025). Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, which has a July 18 deadline to act on Trump’s rescission request before it expires. Chamber rules would allow any senator to bypass Appropriations beginning July 7 and seek a floor vote on a motion to proceed.

Free Press Government Relations Director Amanda Beckham said Wednesday night that the Senate Appropriations hearing showed that Trump’s bid to kill CPB’s advance funding “faces strong opposition from across the political spectrum.”

“The idea that this rescission package is about generating meaningful savings is a joke, especially when this administration proposes to balloon the deficit with its other tax cuts,” she said. “The reality is that [Trump] is hostile to any media entity that asks hard questions instead of just producing fawning propaganda.” Beckham said Free Press “hopes that the vocal opposition senators expressed to Trump’s plans isn’t just empty rhetoric.”