Durbin Speaks Against President Trump's Efforts To Strip Public Broadcasting Of Federal Funding
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today led Senators in speeches on the Senate floor against President Trump’s $9.4 billion rescissions request to cut funding already appropriated by Congress—specifically the $1.1 billion cut to federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), including $700 million that provides critical funding for local public media. Should Republicans pass the President’s rescissions package, it would devastate more than 1,500 public radio and TV stations across the country.
“Bottom line: do you think we’re better off with less information as Americans or more? Bottom line: do you want a choice to pick your own source of information, do you want that choice to include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting? The President says, ‘no, we’re not going to provide the assistance for that to continue.’ What [does it] mean for small towns in downstate Illinois all the way up to Chicago? Public media stations provide essential, nonpartisan news coverage, life-saving emergency and weather alerts, and educational programming for our kids,” said Durbin.
Durbin went on to highlight how crucial public broadcasting stations are for rural communities. Right now, five counties in Illinois already are news deserts and 40 other counties have only one news source left. President Trump’s rescissions package would eliminate $700 million in support for local stations, forcing many of these rural stations with small donor bases to close if these cuts become law.
“In these remote Illinois counties, these stations deliver critical services that commercial broadcasters [simply] abandon in less profitable markets. What does that mean? Once these stations are gone, they’re gone… And in times of crisis, that could mean in the extreme, the difference between life and death. Let me explain. Radio stations in Alaska, which rely on CPB to fund [up to] 98 percent of their operations, will lose the ability to share information about terrible weather conditions that are threatening the people of Alaska. In Alabama, folks will go without emergency alerts during tornado scares. And just this last weekend, a deadly flash flood took the lives of over 100 people and counting in rural, central Texas. While we don’t know exactly what procedures were in place, we do know that this funding is vital for emergency alerts—especially when disasters happen in the middle of the night. These are critical services, but President Trump doesn’t agree,” Durbin continued.
In President Trump’s request to Congress, he justified these proposed cuts saying, “federal spending on [the Corporation for Public Broadcasting] subsidizes a public media system that is politically biased and is an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.”
“These publicly funded local stations educate our children, deliver emergency alerts, and inform our democracy. They are not an ‘unnecessary expense’ by any measure—they are a lifeline,”Durbin continued.
During his floor remarks, Durbin highlighted what two public broadcasting stations mean to Illinois communities—WGLT and WQPT. WGLT hosts candidate events and forums ahead of each election and their mission is to keep neighbors connected and talking to each other. WGLT had nearly 100 percent bipartisan participation from candidates in the McLean County municipal election event. And McLean County municipal voter turnout has increased in local elections thanks to the work of WGLT. WQPT is the Quad Cities’ only locally owned PBS station, serving eastern Iowa and western Illinois. WQPT’s First Book Club outreach program provides five free books per year to at-risk youth by partnering with Title I classrooms. Since the start of the program, WQPT has given away 400,000 free books to children from low-income, English-as-second-language, rural, and special needs families.
“While Donald Trump says this rescissions request is in the spirit of improving government efficiency, I ask this: is there anything ‘efficient’ about denying information to American citizens, about not giving American citizens a choice when it comes to broadcasting? I’ll tell you what this request really is: it’s an attack on rural America just like the [Republicans’] ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’ Thanks to the ‘Big Beautiful Bill, [which] the President just signed into law, 300 rural hospitals could close around this country.”
Durbin concluded, “With this rescissions request, small towns and rural communities are going to get hit again and [are] set to lose their only access to trusted, local media. These cuts could irreparably harm communities across America who count on public media for 24/7 news, music, educational programming, and emergency alert services. So, I urge my Republican colleagues—will they step up next week and vote that way [to protect public broadcasting?] Many of them represent rural areas, small town America. Stand up for these people and vote down this request to cut funding that has long enjoyed bipartisan support.”
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.
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