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The US House voted to pass President Donald Trump’s rescissions package Thursday, codifying the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) recommendations for deep cuts to controversial taxpayer-funded programs such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID), National Public Radio (NPR), and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
The 214-212 vote sets up a defunding of USAID to the tune of over $8 billion and of public broadcasting by a sum of over $1 billion.
Only four Republican representatives voted against Trump’s DOGE cuts, Newsweek reported, “Mike Turner of Ohio, Mark Amodei of Nevada, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Nicole Malliotakis of New York—joined all Democrats in opposing the bill.”
CatholicVote had endorsed the package ahead of Thursday’s vote, with CatholicVote cofounder Joshua Mercer emphasizing the importance of its measure defunding public broadcasting.
“Many liberal pundits insist that public broadcasting provides wonderful programming that the American people want,” Mercer said. “If that’s the case, they don’t need taxpayer funding or the strings that come with it.”
“PBS and NPR have a long history and a strong fan base. They can easily survive with subscriptions or sponsorships,” Mercer added. “There’s no reason to continue borrowing money from China to keep media companies on the dole.”
As CatholicVote reported in April, “Concerns over political bias were spotlighted during a March hearing of the House Oversight Subcommittee, which summoned the CEOs of NPR and PBS to testify.”
NPR CEO Katherine Maher testified that she had “never seen any instance of… political bias determining editorial decisions” at her network. “Republicans,” however, “noted a prior report showing that all 87 of NPR’s editorial staff in the D.C. area were registered Democrats,” CatholicVote reported.