Senator Baldwin Criticizes Partisan Rescissions Package and its Impact on Public Media

Impact on Public Broadcasting

• 📉 A rescissions package is criticized for reducing funding for educational programming and local public radio and television.
• ⚠️ This funding cut disproportionately affects rural communities, where public broadcasting is vital for local news, emergency alerts (like tornado warnings and Amber Alerts), and free educational content for children.
• 📰 The loss of funding endangers local news sources, which are already disappearing, leaving communities with limited or no local news outlets.
• 📺 Stations like WXPR and Radio Milwaukee, which provide essential local reporting and broadcast community information, are under threat.

Concerns with the Rescissions Process

• 🚫 The package represents the first time a rescissions process is used to pass completely partisan rescissions, undoing bipartisan agreements.
• 🏛️ This extraordinary process undermines the ability of the Senate to perform its basic functions and deviates from the principle of regular order in appropriations.
• 🤝 The speaker argues that passing partisan rescissions makes future bipartisan appropriation negotiations much harder, as it erodes trust and the ability for the minority party to make concessions.
• 🗓️ The speaker contrasts this with past instances, like in fiscal year 2019, where bipartisan appropriation bills were passed before the fiscal year began, even after a similar partisan rescissions package failed.

Call for Regular Order

• ⚖️ The speaker emphasizes that issues raised in rescission packages should be debated and addressed within the annual appropriations process, through committee markups and floor debates.
• 🛑 Voting for this rescissions package contradicts the goal of achieving regular order and avoiding brinksmanship over government funding.
• 🗣️ The speaker commits to working with Republican colleagues on specific concerns regarding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, noting that these issues were not raised during the original appropriation process.
• 🙏 Colleagues are urged to vote no on the package, reflecting on its implications for a more functional and bipartisan Senate.