Rep. Sykes Votes to Save Local Public Radio & TV, Protect Life-Saving Foreign Aid

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Early this morning, U.S. Representative Emilia Sykes (OH-13) voted against the Senate-passed rescissions package that cuts $9 billion to foreign aid and public broadcasting. Ohio public media stations received $13.3 million in funding last year. The Republican rescissions bill will devastate public TV and radio stations across the country, making it more difficult for people to get news and critical emergency alerts. The bill will also gut life-saving foreign aid programs that millions of people around the world rely on. The legislation passed the Senate and House without bipartisan support and now heads to the president's desk to be signed into law.

"This $9 billion rescissions package does nothing to address the cost-of-living crisis, hurts middle class and working families, and undermines national security," said Rep. Sykes. "Congress should make government services more efficient, but cutting off rural communities' and working families' access to critical information like severe weather alerts - or even traffic updates on the way to work - does not create efficiency, nor does it help the people in Ohio's 13th Congressional District. I could not support legislation that will be harmful to the people I represent."

When Congress funds government programs, the president must spend the money Congress appropriates and carries out the programs that Congress directs in law. This is the law and has been since before the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA) was enacted. The ICA was enacted as an additional safeguard for Congress's power of the purse on top of the existing legal framework. If Congress passes a law to take back, or "rescind," the funding, then the money is gone.

The rescissions package hurts hardworking American families by:

• Harming millions of preschool-age kids (and their families) that currently benefit from PBS Kids children's educational programs, such as Sesame Street or Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, that improve children's literacy and math skills.
• Terminating $1.1 billion in funding for public television and public radio, including funding that is allocated directly to more than 1,500 locally-owned public television or public radio stations. Ohio public media stations received $13.3 million in funding last year.
• Hurting rural communities, as locally-owned public television stations and public radio stations are often the only trusted and reliable news source available, as well as the only coverage of local high school sports.
• Threatening public safety and disaster response, as public television and public radio provide emergency alerts even when other communications systems go down.

The rescissions package hurts the U.S. abroad by:

• Eliminating all of the civilian funding intended to support Ukraine and other partners in Eastern Europe and Central Asia facing aggression from Putin.
• Removing access to basic family planning and contraception for 48 million women.
• Rescinding $2.5 billion of development resources away from partner countries
• Eliminating the U.S. contribution for UNICEF which is currently serving millions of kids surviving conflict and extreme poverty.