WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wyoming Republican U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis say they will vote for a bill passed by the House this week that claws back $9.4 billion allocated in total to NPR, PBS and a foreign aid agency.
The bill proposes to strip the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) of $8.3 billion, and to yank $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which Republicans say helps fund left-leaning news operations and other programming.
“The Senate should quickly approve these savings,” John Barrasso, the Senate majority whip, told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “Hard-earned taxpayer dollars should not be spent promoting far-left climate policies or woke agendas.”
The bill codifies cuts identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk before his falling out with President Donald Trump.
The Republican-controlled U.S. House passed the measure Thursday with support from U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming. But it teetered on the brink of collapse because public broadcasting includes nonpolitical programming and emergency alerts, which are valued by some Republicans.
The House tally was 214-212 with four Republicans opposed and two not voting. No Democrats voted in favorof the measure, and four did not cast votes.
Passage in the Senate is not a certainty, but the GOP controls that chamber with a 53-47 edge and needs to muster only a simple majority of votes instead of a filibuster-proof 60.
Lummis Cites $37 Trillion Debt
"I am fully supportive of President Trump's rescissions package and believe that more cuts need to be included,” U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “Our country is nearly $37 trillion in debt and the failed status quo cannot be allowed to continue."
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit group created by Congress in 1967 that receives both public and private money, is battling to stave off Senate passage.
“Public media delivers unmatched value to the American taxpayer,” CEO Patricia Harrison said in a statement Thursday. “It serves every family in every part of America. It’s available for families without access to reliable broadband, cable or streaming services.”
Hageman: Restore ‘Fiscal Sanity’
Hageman told Cowboy State Daily she hopes the rescissions legislation will be “the first of many” to cut spending.
Passage of the bill “is an important step toward restoring fiscal sanity and returning power to the American people by codifying the work of DOGE,” she said.
“I proudly voted in support of this bill to rein in federal overreach and eliminate unnecessary expenditures,” the congresswoman added. “My hope is this bill will be the first of many to stop wasting taxpayer dollars.”
Wyoming Connections
The CPB has significant Wyoming connections. The board of directors includes Chairwoman Ruby Calvert, who lives in Riverton.
Her long career at Wyoming PBS included helping launch “Main Street Wyoming” in 1990. She ascended to general manager at Wyoming PBS, retiring in 2015.
In April, the CPB board sued the Trump administration after Trump fired three Democratic members of the board.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Calvert declined to comment when contacted by Cowboy State Daily when the lawsuit was filed, citing the advice of the board’s attorneys.
Diana Enzi, the wife of former U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, is a member of America’s Public Television Stations. That is a nonprofit group that advocates for public broadcasting. She is a trustee of Wyoming PBS.
Executive Order
Trump issued an executive order to defund NPR and PBS in May, but his authority to do that was in question. The legislation now before the Senate, if cleared and signed by Trump, would leave no doubt about the matter.
When Trump signed the order, Hageman told Cowboy State Daily that the NPR and PBS news operations amounted to “leftist propaganda.”
Trump’s order was “a direct response to what he is hearing from voters all over the country — we don't need to be funding leftist propaganda,” she said at the time.
“Public trust in these news outlets has been lost and their support of a singular partisan narrative is an affront to the diverse beliefs of the American people who fund it through their tax dollars,” she added. “I stand behind the president's directive that public broadcasting should lose public funding and rely on the support of those who consume their product, just as any other media source must.”
Barrasso echoed those remarks in May when asked about the news operations funded in part by the CPB.
“The American people expect publicly funded television and radio programming to present straightforward, factual news and content that is free of political bias,” he said at the time. “National PBS and NPR stations have failed to meet this standard.”
Sean Barry can be reached at sean@cowboystatedaily.com.
