Stop the bill that legalizes Trump’s cuts to vital services!

(protectmypublicmedia.org) For about $1.60 per person each year, federal funding powers:

• Lifesaving geotargeted emergency alerts and warnings delivered to your cell phones and the airwaves.
• Captivating local programming and community engagement, thought-provoking documentaries and stories, public forums tackling local issues, enriching cultural experiences, and educational workshops supporting children and caregivers.
• Educational content and resources, proven by 100+ studies to boost children’s literacy, math, and science skills.
• PreK-12 classroom tools for educators, children, and families.

Taking back this funding would immediately undermine stations’ ability to serve their communities. Numerous studies confirm there is no replacement for federal support. Stations would face tough choices — cutting programs, reducing outreach, shrinking coverage, or going off-air entirely. Small, rural, and Native American-operated stations, who are often some of their communities’ only local media sources, would be at greatest risk.

(protectmypublicmedia.org) “Public media isn’t just about educational programs and documentaries. It’s about infrastructure. It’s about having a trusted voice and a signal that reaches nearly every household in America — especially in rural areas where there may be no local news station and where cell coverage is spotty at best.

These stations serve as critical components of our national emergency communications backbone. Many are the primary hubs for the Emergency Alert System in their states. They carry AMBER Alerts. They support severe weather warnings. And they’re part of the technology FEMA and others use to push Wireless Emergency Alerts to your phone. That system doesn’t work without public broadcasting.

And that’s just the national picture.

At the state and local level, public broadcasting stations are stepping up with real innovation:

• In California, they’ve helped cut earthquake alert times from 30 seconds to less than 3.
• In Tennessee, they’ve partnered with the state to build a dedicated emergency communications network.
• In Florida and South Carolina, public media runs round-the-clock storm updates, making sure residents get lifesaving information when it matters most.

This is public safety in action — not theory. These are boots-on-the-ground, people-on-the-air efforts that make the difference between timely evacuations and missed warnings.

And they only happen because Congress has invested in public media through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

A Primer on Rescission Proposals Under the Impoundment Control Act

Congress enacted the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) in response to President Nixon’s unilateral impoundment of appropriated funds, which the courts had already ruled unlawful. The ICA created a process by which a President could seek expedited congressional approval to rescind appropriated funding. Under the ICA, the President can request that Congress take back funding that it previously provided as long as the funding has not yet been obligated (typically meaning committed to a particular purpose or recipient). Specifically:

• Presidents may propose funds they desire to be rescinded, and the requested rescission amounts, through a special message to Congress.
• Congress may choose to act on all or some of the funding accounts the President has proposed for rescission and can modify the amounts of funding to be rescinded, but cannot add programs to a rescission package.
• A rescission package proposed in this manner can pass the Senate with a simple majority and cannot be filibustered.
• Congress has 45 consecutive days to take action on a rescission package. The ICA includes special rules to facilitate prompt consideration of a rescission package if a majority of members wish to vote on it.
• The executive branch can temporarily pause the obligation of funds included in a rescission package while Congress considers the request. However, any funds not approved for rescission within 45 days can no longer be paused and must subsequently be obligated, consistent with existing appropriations law. Given that the funds in this rescission request have been impounded for months, there is a strong argument to be made that the ICA’s 45-day standard should apply to an earlier date than when the package was transmitted to Congress on June 3. However, using the date the rescission package was transmitted, the Senate would have until July 18 to take action on it.

Targets of Proposed Cuts

The fiscal impact of the Administration’s rescission package would be quite small; the savings would offset less than 0.3 percent of the cost of the recently enacted Republican reconciliation bill.^a The cuts target two areas: public television and radio stations and programs that are intended to support global health, disaster assistance, and development programs in poor countries.

Public television and radio: The federal government is the largest single funding source for public television and radio stations.^b Eliminating all federal funding beginning this fall would end a multi-decades-long funding relationship that has long had bipartisan support, in part because this funding plays a particularly important role in smaller, more rural and isolated communities with limited alternatives for local news and public alerts.^c For example, Senator Mike Rounds has said that there are Native American radio stations in South Dakota that “will not continue to exist” if their funding is cut without replacement.^d

Global assistance: The proposed rescission package would reduce funding for a range of global assistance programs, including global health programs, development assistance, and migration and refugee assistance. For example, the rescission package would cut $400 million from programs to combat HIV/AIDS, including the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program started by former President George W. Bush. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins noted that the PEPFAR program “has saved more than 26 million lives” and “remains a bipartisan priority of Congress.” She further noted that, “Cutting funds now — funding that is aimed at preventing disease transmission — would be extraordinarily ill-advised and shortsighted.”^e

^a Congressional Budget Office, “Information Concerning the Budgetary Effects of H.R. 1, as Passed by the Senate on July 1, 2025,” July 1, 2025, https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61537.

^b Corporation for Public Broadcasting, “CPB Financial Information,” accessed on July 1, 2025, https://cpb.org/aboutcpb/financials/. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Community Service Grants are allocated to more than 1,500 local rural and urban public media stations. Corporation for Public Broadcasting, “FY 2026 and FY 2028 Justification to Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Related Agencies Subcommittee,” May 30, 2025, https://cpb.org/sites/default/files/Public-%20FY%202026%20and%20FY%202028%20Justification%20to%20Labor%2C%20Health%20and%20Human%20Services%2C%20Education%20Related%20Agencies%20Subcommittee%20%281%29.pdf.

^c Christopher Vondracek and Emmy Martin, “Federal funding cut could silence tribal, rural radio stations many in Minnesota consider vital,” Star Tribune, June 27, 2025, https://www.startribune.com/federal-funding-cut-could-silence-tribal-rural-radio-stations-many-in-minnesota-consider-vital/601372507.

^d Aris Foley, “Trump budget director faces bipartisan heat in Senate on DOGE cuts,” The Hill, June 25, 2025, https://thehill.com/business/budget/5370122-vought-bipartisan-heat-senate-doge-cuts/.

^e US Senate Committee on Appropriations, Majority News, “Senator Collins’ Opening Statement at Hearing on President’s Rescissions Package Request,” June 25, 2025, https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majority/senator-collins-opening-statement-at-hearing-on-presidents-rescissions-package-request.