U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill Thursday that canceled about $9 billion in ratification that has been approved for public broadcasting and foreign aid as Republicans hope to limit layoffs to plans targeted by the White House Department of Efficiency.
Most of the expenditure was withdrawn from foreign aid programs. About $1.1 billion is destined to fund public broadcasters, which will fund NPR and PBS, although most of the funds are distributed to 1,500 local public broadcast stations across the country.
The White House has made the legislation a test case in Congress and said there will be more such revocation packages on the way.
Some Republicans are uncomfortable with layoffs, but support them anyway, alert to crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda. Democrats unanimously rejected the cuts, but they could not help stop them.
The White House said the public media system is politically biased and unnecessary expenses. Conservatives have especially aroused anger from NPR and PBS. Councillors with large rural constituencies have expressed serious concern about what cuts in public broadcasts might mean for some of their state’s local public stations. They warned that some stations would have to shut down.
R-Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said the stations are “not only your news – this is your tsunami alert, this is your landslide alert, this is your volcanic alert.”
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With cuts in foreign aid, the White House argues that they will inspire other countries to step up their efforts and do more to deal with the humanitarian crisis, and the removal is best for U.S. taxpayers.
Democrats argue that the Republican administration’s hostility to foreign aid programs will damage the United States’ position in the world and fill a vacuum for China. They also expressed concern that cuts would have fatal consequences for many of the poorest people in the world.
“With these cuts, we will cause death, spread disease and deepen hunger on the planet,” said Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.
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