Senate records package with $ 9 billion spending cuts: NPR

Ailsa Chang, host:

The Senate assumes a package of $ 9 billion in cutbacks that are requested by the Trump administration. The cutbacks focus on foreign utility programs and public broadcasts. Senate majority leader John Thune says that the Republicans use this bill to reduce the size of the government.

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John Thune: It is clear that this is something that is all of us a priority. If you have a debt of $ 36 trillion, we have to do something to get expenses under control.

Chang: NPR Congressional Correspondent Deirdre Walsh has covered this and now accompanies us from the Capitol. And only a comment – no NPR director has had a hand in this cover, right, Deirdre?

Deirdre Walsh, Byline: just right.

Chang: OK, so the house approved the Witte House request last month for these cuts. Have senate republicans made changes in what the house has approved?

Walsh: Yes, they have that. The original request of the Trump administration proposed $ 9.4 billion for cutbacks. But a program that senators from both parties objected was the reduction of $ 400 million in the program called Pepfar. That is the global public health program set up by President George W. Bush that offers means to combat HIV and AIDS.

Chang: Right.

Walsh: The program has been very successful and saves millions of lives. So senate republicans worked with the administration, decided to get it out of the package, and they are now moving forward with legislation that lowers a total of 8 billion to other foreign utilities and about 1 billion in cuts for public media.

Chang: Yes, and I saw that some senate republicans insist to maintain federal financing for public broadcasts in their home statements. Have they received one of those changes?

Walsh: they did. As you said, there has been this group that was worried about the impact of cuts, usually in the countryside. Republican senator Mike Rounds in South Dakota specifically argued that radio stations that serve indigenous American population in his home had to be supported. He essentially negotiated with the administration and says that they have agreed to reprogram about $ 9 million in money from a program at the Department of Interior and use that money to go to 28 radio stations in nine states that serve indigenous American communities.

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Mike Rounds: I was specifically concerned about the impact on these radio stations that are in the countryside, with people who in principle have very few other means, and that they became entangled in the Crossfire at Public Omroep.

Walsh: But this bill still eliminates federal financing that the congress has already approved for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting earlier this year. It is unclear whether this deal those rounds will receive other Republicans such as Susan Collins van Maine, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska will satisfy. They still want federal money for public radio in their home states. Democrats, for their part, are cutting Democrats – you know, the Republicans for reducing financing for both foreign aid and public broadcasts. New Mexico Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan, who has just returned from visiting flooding in his home, argued that the cutbacks in this bill will influence communities throughout the country that rely on public media for dealing with natural disasters.

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Ben Ray Lujan: But it is the local AM -radio or public broadcasts that can still wear a signal to warn you to get out of your house. It is almost time that you move. Prepare your things. You have to leave there. Something comes.

Chang: OK, well, Deirdre, with these changes to the home version, do you think this account will actually pass in the Senate?

Walsh: You know, Republicans I spoke to this afternoon, it seems pretty sure that they will come. They are still negotiating, but they are planning to reach a procedural vote later tonight to start debating about the bill. Republicans can only lose three voices and still be able to pass it – three Republican voices. They use this process to bypass a filibuster in the Senate. All Democrats are expected to vote no. If the Senate approves this, the house will have to vote on it and the deadline will be this Friday at midnight. If the congress does not approve the bill, the money must be released.

Chang: That is the Deirdre Walsh of NPR. Thank you, Deirdre.

Walsh: Thank you, Ailsa.

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