VIDEO: Sen. Reed speaks out on Senate floor in opposition to Trump’s rescissions package that would eliminate life-saving global health programs, peacekeeping efforts, and economic development abroad, and undercut community-focused TV and radio stations

WASHINGTON, DC – Ahead of a July 18 deadline, Senate Republicans are rushing to pass a rescissions package to claw back roughly $9 billion in humanitarian aid and funding for public broadcasting.  Senate Republicans advanced the proposal last night on a 50-50 vote with three Senate Republicans joining all Democrats and Independents opposing the measure, but with Vice President Vance breaking the tie.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) is urging lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to “oppose this partisan rescission bill because it represents a complete surrender of Congress’s power of the purse.  It will hurt America’s standing in the world and it will cost lives,” Reed said today on the Senate floor.  “We are considering this package at a time when the Trump Administration has frozen congressionally enacted funds, illegally impounded funds, and threatened to cancel unspent funds at the end of fiscal year.  Now, the Administration is back asking Congress to ratify even more cuts.” 

Reed is urging Senators to vote for their constituents best interests and against the Trump Administration’s rescission package, which includes cuts to public television and radio funds that Congress previously authorized and appropriated. 

The Trump Administration’s attempt to defund public media investment would revoke about $1.1 billion in previously-appropriated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), including over $1 million annually for Rhode Island TV and radio stations.

Congress provided CPB approximately $535 million in in federal support for each of the next two fiscal years to disburse across nearly 1,500 local radio and TV stations nationwide, as well as programmers and technology infrastructure providers.  Cutting this funding in the upcoming two fiscal years could force some local stations off the air, while other stations may have fewer shows to broadcast and fewer resources for local news reporting and educational programming.

Speaking on the Senate floor today, Reed stated: “This bill will eliminate close to $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. This would not simply affect funding for National Public Radio and national PBS, it would result in funding cuts for local stations like Rhode Island PBS and the Public’s Radio, which lose about 10 percent of its funding if this bill passes.  The same story will play out in every state with independent local news and civic discourse taking the hit just because of the President’s command to the majority party.”

Reed also noted that public radio is decentralized.  Stations in Kansas are covering local issues, with local personalities, differently than public broadcasters in Rhode Island or other states.

Since 2013, public TV stations have helped the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system deliver emergency alerts to people’s cell phones via the stations’ own transmitters when cell companies’ connections fail.

In 2024, over 11,000 alerts were issued by federal, state, and local authorities via the PBS WARN system. Similarly, the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS), which is managed by NPR, helps send presidential emergency alerts to local public radio stations nationwide—allowing critical communications to reach people, even when the internet or cellular connections fail.

Reed asked: “In the wake of deadly flooding in Texas and elsewhere do my colleagues really want to support a package that cuts funding for emergency alerts?”

The bill would also cut $7.9 billion from the kind of global assistance programs that are crucial to U.S. national security and our efforts to compete with China economically and diplomatically.

These programs are also the embodiment of American idealism and morality.  As Catholic Relief Services wrote: “If passed, these rescissions drastically decrease U.S. investment in international assistance programs that support human dignity, protect life and build good will with countries around the world. Not only that, these cuts and other measures to eliminate international assistance programs also represent a retreat of the U.S. as a global leader in addressing poverty around the world. This would undermine decades of work in serving the global community and fostering a peaceful and prosperous world.”

The cuts on the table include $500 million from global health programs, which could affect efforts that have successfully slowed the spread of infectious diseases, along with cuts to lifesaving humanitarian assistance.

One proven program that could see drastic cuts under this rescissions package is the disbursement of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). RUTF is a specialty product used to treat severe malnutrition in children, and could be impacted by the proposed cuts to UNICEF included in Trump’s package.

“Unfortunately, we have already seen this Administration’s disregard for the lifesaving treatment provided by RUTF.  Edesia Nutrition, a key manufacturer of RUTF based in Rhode Island, has been forced to curtail production and delay shipments of lifesaving therapeutic food, which has sat in warehouses, unable to get to the children who need it because of the Trump Administration’s needless slow-walking.  If OMB really cared about waste, it wouldn’t have this food aid and the millions of tons of wheat and other crops sitting and rotting rather than distributing it,” said Senator Reed, noting these are American-made products made by American workers, using domestically produced food, to prevent millions of at-risk, malnourished children from starving to death.

“These cuts are shortsighted, there is no other way to put it. To paraphrase former Secretary of Defense Mattis, ‘if we don’t fund these soft power and diplomatic programs, then we need to buy more ammunition,’” concluded Reed.