The US Senate is debating whether to reclaim $9.4 billion in previously authorized monies. This funding was intended to support international peacekeeping operations, medical and other foreign aid, and $1 billion for public television and radio through the Corporation of Public Broadcasting.
According to Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, she informed Russell Vought, the president’s budget officer, that she disagrees with certain planned cuts.
“I cannot support the cuts that are so deep and so damaging in global health programs,” Collins said to Vought at a Senate hearing. Collins is especially against reducing money for PEPFAR, an effort by the George W. Bush administration to aid developing countries in the fight against HIV and AIDS. According to Collins, the initiative has prevented 20 million deaths.
Collins states that she wants to maintain funds authorized for public radio and television stations, such as Maine Public, in order to support public broadcasting. Collins claims that Maine Public is a crucial component of the emergency alert system in addition to popular programs.
Collins, however, claims that NPR has a “partisan bent.” Collins calls the use of the word “liar” by NPR President Katherine Maher in her response to President Donald Trump, as well as the fact that she has been seen sporting a Joe Biden hat, “very troubling.”
Maherin 2020 posted that picture before she was appointed CEO of NPR in January 2024.
“NPR should be providing the kind of neutral coverage that Maine Public, for the most part, does provide,” Collins asserts.
Although Maine Public’s newsroom retains editorial independence, its reporters and editors have contributed to national coverage as an NPR member station.
Collins said she would like to see funding for public media groups other than NPR taken out of the rescinded measure because NPR only receives roughly $4 million of the $1 billion in question.
