Lisa Murkowski Introduces Bill To Protect Public Broadcasting Funds From Cuts, Then Schmitt Objects

During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced a bill to protect funding for public broadcasting.

Transcript

00:00Mr. President, I've got a news alert. This afternoon we had a 7.3 earthquake off of the coast of Alaska.

00:12It's pretty big. We got the alert from KUCB staff members who felt this earthquake out there in Onalaska.

00:22They contacted the emergency responders. It was an all-hands on deck.

00:30I'm looking at a text that I received from the station manager there at KUCB.

00:35Three staff members worked at sea level in our studio to get emergency messages on the air in coordination with local public safety officials.

00:42A fourth employee worked remotely to update the web and social media.

00:46When the tsunami sirens started to blare, the voice message in the warning instructed community members to tune in to the local radio.

00:54We provided up-to-date information throughout the entire evacuation and all clear procedures.

00:58So the good news is tsunami is all clear.

01:01But they say this is the work that we do to keep Onalaska safe, and it's only possible with federal funding.

01:07Mr. President, I have an amendment that protects public media, their independence, their ability to provide local news, weather reports,

01:15and, yes, emergency alerts.

01:17What we do in this amendment is we tweak the rescission for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to protect public broadcasting

01:25while removing the pot of money that can go directly to NPR.

01:30We're reminded today this stuff matters.

01:34So I would hope my colleagues would recognize what is at stake and vote for my amendment.

01:39Mr. President.

01:41To recognize the senator from Missouri.

01:42Thank you, Mr. President.

01:43And I rise in objection to the amendment from my colleague from Alaska.

01:48As was mentioned earlier on several of these other Corporation for Public Broadcasting amendments,

01:52this rescission does nothing to affect FEMA, which actually does the emergency response system.

01:57So our hearts, and I know that's a scary situation in Alaska, but the good news is FEMA money will be there for these sort of alerts.

02:04We've come a long way tonight.

02:06We're almost there.

02:06Our efforts to finally prevent federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, this is maybe one of the last votes for that.

02:15And what's important to note here is this would gut that aspect of it.

02:1993% of the work that we're trying to do would be eliminated here.

02:23So this would effectively fully fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to the tune of 93% of what we currently are trying to rescind.

02:31So this is a very important vote.

02:33And I would ask my colleagues to vote no.