Lisa Murkowski Bucks Trump And Announces No Vote For Advancing Rescissions Package

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On the Senate floor, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said she'd vote no on advancing the rescissions package.

Transcript

00:00I know we are approaching the hour that was planned for the vote on this

00:11motion to discharge this rescission package. I just want to take a couple

00:14minutes. I'm going to be voting to oppose discharging this package from

00:21committee. It is not that I don't think that we should be doing more when it

00:28comes to oversight of our budget. It's not that I don't think that we should be

00:34doing more when it comes to ensuring that we're working to get our levels of

00:40spending down. But I also think that we need to be doing more as legislators, more

00:47as lawmakers, more as senators, when it comes to our own authorities, our

00:55constitutional authorities, when it comes to the power of the purse. We do

01:00rescissions. We do rescissions in our annual budget bills, in our own

01:06appropriations bills, in fact bills that we are working on right now as

01:10appropriators. We've got a series of markups that are going to be coming up

01:15this week. We had some last week. We do this. We look to provisions that have

01:22been included in the budgets. We look to reprogram. We look to rescind. We do that

01:28as legislators. There's a good reason, I think, that we haven't seen a successful

01:33rescissions package before the Senate in almost 33 years. It's because we've

01:40recognized that, hey, that's our role here. That is our role here when it comes to the

01:46power of the purse. And so I have several concerns, specific concerns, about this

01:54package. First, it's unclear to me how the specific accounts that are targeted for

02:01the rescission are going to be impacted. Neither the administration nor others have

02:06been able to provide that very clear, very transparent explanation about the

02:13programs and the priorities that are going to be cut as a result of the

02:17measure. Some changes have been proposed to protect global health programs. That's

02:22great. That's important. But I think it's important that we have those details,

02:28including the ones that are going to be absolutely zeroed out. And so how do we

02:33determine the implications for life-saving care, vital resources for women and

02:38children abroad? We've got big, broad categories. But I haven't been given the

02:46comfort, if you will, that we're not impacting maternal and child health, that

02:51we're not impacting HIV-AIDS, that we're not impacting nutrition programs and

02:56programs related to tuberculosis, malaria, polio, neglected tropical disease,

03:02pandemic prevention, family planning. I think that we are entitled to have that

03:09level of detail when these funds that we have authorized, that we have

03:16appropriated to, are now being clawed back. I don't think that that is too much to

03:21ask. When it comes to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, my colleagues know

03:26I've been a strong supporter. I will continue to be a strong supporter. Where if you

03:32don't like what's going on within NPR, you think that there's too much bias there, we

03:37can address that. We can address that. But you don't need to gut the entire

03:42Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The entity, the program that provides for so

03:49much support, particularly for those in rural places, it's not just your news, it's

03:56your tsunami alerts, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert,

04:02it is the weather to let you know it's safe to go out and get on the fishing

04:08grounds, it's your educational programming. I am going to continue to be an advocate

04:14for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. So I've got concerns about the contents of

04:21the package, yes. I've got content, I've got concerns about the details that we have

04:26not been able to fully received, but more important than all of that, more important

04:33is our role here. I don't want us to go from one reconciliation bill to a rescissions package,

04:42to another rescissions package, to a reconciliation package, to a continuing resolution. We're lawmakers,

04:51we should be legislating. What we're getting now is a direction from the White House and

04:57being told, this is the priority, we want you to execute on it, we'll be back with you

05:02with another round. I don't accept that, I'm going to be voting no.

05:16You

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