On Senate Floor, Klobuchar Fights Cuts to Public Broadcasting

WATCH KLOBUCHAR'S FULL REMARKS HERE

WASHINGTON - On the Senate Floor, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) spoke in opposition to legislation to clawback funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and foreign aid, which was previously approved on a bipartisan basis last Congress.

"This clawback doesn't just eliminate funding for, say, NPR, PBS. The primary impact of that part of the funding cuts is going to be on local radio and TV. 1,500 local public media stations across the country that receive 70% of this funding - jeopardizing these stations that provide local community services…

I know because I know some of my communities that rely on these stations. Grand Marais, MN - the very tip of our state, the tip of Minnesota. Do you think all these other stations are covering the Canadian wildfires? Hourly. They do because of the smoke, and people need to know the air quality when they're making decisions about what they're going to do that day or the next day.

Do you think people know when on Hwy. 61 there's a tree over the road or there's been a deer that's been hit by a car and the emergency? No, they hear it on WTIP….

This isn't a partisan issue. 77% of Republicans and 78% of Democrats report relying on public radio for emergency alerts and news. That's part of the reason why, for a half a century, we have agreed on a bipartisan basis in the US Senate to invest in public broadcasting. Yet now, Congressional Republicans are using a partisan process to rubber stamp the president's unchecked power and rip away these resources."

Download Klobuchar's full floor speech here.

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