In Speech On Senate Floor, Durbin Criticizes Congressional Republicans, Trump Admin For Slashing Funding For Public Broadcasting, Foreign Aid
In his remarks, Durbin emphasized that rural communities rely on public broadcasting in emergencies like active shooter situations and dangerous weather events
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today spoke on the Senate floor in opposition to the rescissions package that the Trump Administration and congressional Republicans jammed through Congress last week, clawing back $9 billion in previously appropriated funding to public broadcasting and foreign aid. In his remarks, Durbin underscored the danger of defunding sources of public media and destroying foreign aid programs.
“What was in this bill? There were primarily two major elements. One element was foreign aid, humanitarian assistance for around the word, paid for by the United States. The other element was public broadcasting, National Public Radio, for example. Eight billion was taken out of foreign aid. One billion was taken away from public broadcasting,” Durbin said.
“I’ve cast, as a member of the Senate honored to represent the State of Illinois, over 9,000 votes… This vote last week was one of the votes [that I will remember]. Why will I remember this? Because nongovernmental organizations, charities, humanitarian aid groups around the world, have told us that taking $8 billion out of foreign aid, humanitarian assistance is going to cost us in terms of lives – denying people food, clean water to drink, and medicine, and the basics of life in the poorest places on Earth,” Durbin said. “That decision by the Senate and the House, signed by President Trump over the weekend is going to cost human lives in the poorest places on Earth.”
Durbin then spoke about the impact of cutting $1.1 billion in funding to public media, emphasizing that these radio stations are critical in sharing real-time information during a crisis or weather emergency. Last weekend, Durbin visited with the administrators of local public radio stations in Illinois, including Heather Norman, the President of the Illinois Public Broadcasting Council. In his remarks, Durbin shared Heather’s story of WIUM’s response during an active shooter situation in Macomb, Illinois.
“But there was another part of it [the rescissions package], too, that struck me as really painful. That was the decision to eliminate the federal support for public broadcasting, National Public Radio, and public television. I’m a fan… I’m also from downstate Illinois. That’s the part of the state outside Chicago, where the small towns and the rural areas are located. And I know what public broadcasting means to those areas,” Durbin said.
“A lady named Heather Norman, who is with the Illinois Public Broadcasting Council, joined me at a press conference on Friday in front of the public radio station in the City of Chicago. I asked her to tell me and the press an example of why public radio was different than the other radio stations, why it was important,” Durbin said. “She works at the public radio station in Macomb, Illinois. Macomb is a downstate community on the western side of our state, a more sparsely populated area than what people visualize than when you say Chicago, Illinois. In Macomb, Illinois, is Western Illinois University. Thousands of students from all around the state and the area attend college there. A year ago, there was an active shooter in the community. They learned about it through the police notifying the radio station, and they started broadcasting to the people of Macomb to stay in their homes, to shelter in place.”
“You say to yourself, ‘I bet the other radio stations did, too.’ They didn’t… It was a public broadcasting station, the public radio station that kept the people of Macomb and McDonough County safe. To say that you can eliminate that station and it won’t make any difference, whether the warning is about an active shooter, about a tornado, a flood, a fire, public broadcasting is there on the scene doing their job, day in and day out,” Durbin continued.
Durbin underscored that without this federal funding, local public radio stations across the state could close permanently.
“What’s going to happen with this decision by the Trump Administration to eliminate federal support for these stations? I don’t know. I asked Heather. She said there are probably two stations in the state, at least two, that’ll go out of business. They depend so much on the help from Washington. That’s a loss,” Durbin said.
“Whether you’re conservative or liberal, MAGA or progressive, whatever you want to call yourself, how could you want an America with less information, fewer choices for sources of that information? The strength of our democracy is in the fact that the American people have access to good, credible information and can make up their own minds… That’s the key to the core of democracy. We attacked it last week when we eliminated support for public broadcasting,” Durbin said.
“I think America would be poorer and less free and would have less information available to people in our country if we allow this [the defunding of public broadcasting] to go forward,” Durbin concluded his remarks.
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.
In 2024, $12.8 million in Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funding went to Illinois, supporting 526 jobs and paying more than $46 million in wages. There are 25 non-commercial education radio stations in Illinois broadcasting programming from NPR. The funding cuts will impact programming such as PBS KIDS, which is educational programming that ensures access to free, high-quality early learning resources in areas where preschools and other educational services are scarce. Without CPB funding, local radio and TV stations in downstate Illinois, which rely more heavily on this funding, are at risk of closure.
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