Senate votes to move ahead with Trump's request for $9 billion in spending cuts - By Kevin Freking, Associated Press
Republicans on Tuesday advanced President Donald Trump's request to cancel some $9 billion in previously approved spending, overcoming concerns from some lawmakers about what the rescissions could mean for impoverished people around the globe and for public radio and television stations in their home states.
The Senate vote was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie.
A final vote in the Senate could occur as early as Wednesday. The bill would then return to the House for another vote before it would go to Trump's desk for his signature before a Friday deadline.
Republicans winnowed down the president's request by taking out his proposed $400 million cut to a program known as PEPFAR. That change increased the prospects for the bill's passage. The politically popular program is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under then-President George W. Bush to combat HIV/AIDS.
The president is also looking to claw back money for foreign aid programs targeted by his Department of Government Efficiency and for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
"When you've got a $36 trillion debt, we have to do something to get spending under control," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
The White House tries to win over skeptics
Republicans met with Russ Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, during their weekly conference luncheon as the White House worked to address their concerns. He fielded about 20 questions from senators.
The White House campaign to win over potential holdouts had some success. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., tweeted that he would vote to support the measure after working with the administration to "find Green New Deal money that could be reallocated to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption."
Some senators worried that the cuts to public media could decimate many of the 1,500 local radio and television stations around the country that rely on some federal funding to operate. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributes more than 70% of its funding to those stations.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she was particularly concerned about a lack of specifics from the White House.
"The rescissions package has a big problem — nobody really knows what program reductions are in it," Collins said. "That isn't because we haven't had time to review the bill. Instead, the problem is that OMB has never provided the details that would normally be part of this process."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she didn't want the Senate to be going through numerous rounds of rescissions.
"We are lawmakers. We should be legislating," Murkowski said. "What we're getting now is a direction from the White House and being told: 'This is the priority and we want you to execute on it. We'll be back with you with another round.' I don't accept that."
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Collins and Murkowski joined with Democrats in voting against the Senate taking up the measure.
McConnell said he wanted to make clear he didn't have any problem with reducing spending, but agreed with Collins that lawmakers didn't have enough details from the White House.
"They would like a blank check is what they would like. And I don't think that's appropriate," McConnell said.
But the large majority of Republicans were supportive of Trump's request.
"This bill is a first step in a long but necessary fight to put our nation's fiscal house in order," said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.
Democrats warn of the consequences
Democrats warned that it's absurd to expect them to work with Republicans on bipartisan spending measures if Republicans turn around a few months later and use their majority to cut the parts they don't like.
"It shreds the appropriations process," said Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats. "The Appropriations Committee, and indeed this body, becomes a rubber stamp for whatever the administration wants."
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that tens of millions of Americans rely on local public radio and television stations for local news, weather alerts and educational programs. He warned that many could lose access to that information because of the rescissions.
"And these cuts couldn't come at a worse time," Schumer said. "The floods in Texas remind us that speedy alerts and up-to-the-minute forecasts can mean the difference between life and death."
Democrats also scoffed at the GOP's stated motivation for taking up the bill. The amount of savings pales compared to the $3.4 trillion in projected deficits over the next decade that Republicans put in motion in passing Trump's big tax and spending cut bill two weeks ago.
"Now, Republicans are pretending they are concerned about the debt," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "So concerned that they need to shut down local radio stations, so concerned they are going to cut off 'Sesame Street.' ... The idea that that is about balancing the debt is laughable."
What's ahead in the Senate
With Republicans providing enough votes to take up the bill, it sets up the potential for 10 hours of debate plus votes on scores of potentially thorny amendments in what is known as a vote-a-rama. The House has already shown its support for the president's request with a mostly party line 214-212 vote, but since the Senate is amending the bill, it will have to go back to the House for another vote.
Republicans who vote against the measure also face the prospect of incurring Trump's wrath. He has issued a warning on his social media site directly aimed at individual Senate Republicans who may be considering voting against the rescissions package. He said it was important that all Republicans adhere to the bill and in particular defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
"Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement," he said.
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Congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro and staff writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
Native American radio stations at risk as Congress looks to cut $1B in public broadcasting funding - By Margery A. Beck, Associated Press
Dozens of Native American radio stations across the country vital to tribal communities will be at risk of going off the air if Congress cuts more than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to industry leaders.
The U.S. Senate is set to vote this week on whether to approve the Department of Government Efficiency's plan to rescind previously approved public broadcasting funding for 2026 and 2027. Fear is growing that most of the 59 tribal radio stations that receive the funding will go dark, depriving isolated populations of news, local events and critical weather alerts. The House already approved the cuts last month.
"For Indian Country in general, 80% of the communities are rural, and their only access to national news, native story sharing, community news, whatever it is, is through PBS stations or public radio," said Francene Blythe-Lewis, CEO of the Lincoln, Nebraska-based Native American video programming producer Vision Maker Media. "If the claw back happens, I would say a good 90% of those stations will cease to exist."
Native American communities rely on local radio stations
Local radio plays an outsized role in the lives of many who live in Indigenous communities, where cable television and broadband internet access are spotty, at best, and nonexistent for many. That leaves over-the-air TV stations — usually a PBS station — and more often local radio to provide local news, community event details and music by Indigenous artists. Sometimes the news is delivered in Indigenous languages.
"It means we're not going to hear our language on the radio," Blythe-Lewis said.
Flagstaff, Arizona-based Native Public Media, which supports the network of 59 radio stations and three television stations serving tribal nations across the country, said about three dozen of those radio stations that rely heavily on Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding will be the first to go dark if funding is cut for the coming fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
Loris Taylor, CEO of Native Public Media, said in an op-ed that the tribal stations reach more than 1.5 million people and "may be the only source of locally relevant news, emergency alerts, public safety announcements, language preservation, health information and election coverage."
Republicans face pressure to pass the cuts
GOP senators are under pressure from President Donald Trump, who promised last week on his Truth Social platform that any Republican who votes against the cuts "will not have my support or Endorsement."
Many Republicans say the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense. Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Republican from Missouri, recently defended the cuts as necessary to hack away at the nearly $37 trillion national debt, adding, "It is critical in restoring trust in government."
But some Republicans have pushed back, such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who questioned the proposed cuts last month during a Senate committee hearing. She said that while some of the federal money is assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, most of it goes to locally owned public radio and television stations.
Tribal stations provide lifesaving alerts
Jaclyn Sallee is president and CEO of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and KNBA, its radio station in Anchorage, Alaska. Koahnic produces National Native News, a five-minute daily newscast that features headline news from across Indian Country, and Native America Calling, a daily hourlong call-in program, for about 190 stations across the nation. It also produces Indigefi, a music program in Indigenous languages.
KNBA is on Native Public Media's list of those stations that would be most affected by the federal funding cuts — a concern Sallee confirmed, as 40% of the station's funding comes from CPB.
"What we're really worried about are the rural stations in Alaska where they may be the only station in the community," she said. "The people that live there depend on the station for vital weather alerts, emergency alerts; it's the local hub of the community where people share information. So that is very troublesome because people's lives are at risk without this service."
It's currently fishing season in Alaska, she said, "which means getting out in the ocean or in rivers and going long distances to subsist, and so they really rely on weather reports."
Having the news reported in a tribe's language isn't just about preserving that language, she said. Sallee spent summers in Nome with her mother's family. Her grandmother, she said, spoke only Inupiaq.
Loss of small stations could hurt the larger system
New Mexico PBS's signal reaches all but one of the more than 20 tribes and pueblos in the state. It also has signed an agreement with the Navajo Nation, which has the largest reservation of any tribe in the U.S., that allows the tribe to carry the PBS signal and programming on the Navajo Nation Television network, New Mexico PBS general manger Franz Joachim said.
"It's no question in my mind that, you know, immediately some stations will pretty much go dark," Joachim said.
When those first stations fail, it won't take long for others to follow, Joachim said. And as they do, it will mean fewer and fewer stations left to pay membership dues that also help fund all of the stations.
"So now the whole system starts to fracture," he said. "So for me, the federal funding is really about the system as a whole that keeps us in place."
That funding also helps produce national content that groups like Vision Maker Media produce. Those include Native American documentaries shown on PBS like "Mankiller," the story of Wilma Mankiller who became the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Blythe-Lewis compared the potential loss of tribal stations to the country's past attempts to erase Native American cultures, such as through federal boarding schools where Indigenous children were sent for generations to assimilate them into white society and where systemic abuse of Indigenous children was carried out.
"We're erased from public media and therefore invisible and therefore become unknown and unheard of," she said.
State announces water fair in Mora - Source New Mexico
The New Mexico environment and health departments on Tuesday announced it will offer free domestic well water testing to the first 100 participants in Mora from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 26.
Testing will be available 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in Mora, at the Contractor Connects hosted by New Mexico’s Disaster Case Management Team, located at the Mora Independent Schools 518 Ranger Dr, Mora, NM.
“Private well owners in San Miguel and Mora Counties can come to this water fair and find out more about the quality of their household drinking water,” Ground Water Quality Bureau Chief Justin Ball said in a statement. “Free well water testing events give our communities peace of mind by helping families understand what’s in their water and how to keep it safe, at no cost to them.”
Participants will receive their results within two to three weeks, the department said. The testing “allows well owners to measure pH, specific conductance and levels of nitrates in their water, two measurements that are crucial to maintaining safe drinking water,” the news release said.
The state environment department noted it has tested 175 private drinking water wells at water fairs in the last year, with results available to view online.
How to collect water sample:
- Let the water run for two to three minutes first
- Fill a clean glass or plastic container without any odors with at least a quart or liter of the well water.
- For homes with whole house filtration systems, collect the water at the well head prior to any filtration or softener systems, if possible
- Fill the container with water as close to the time of testing as possible
Clovis cheese plant cited following December incident
– Josh Lee, NM.news
A major chemical accident at a local cheese plant that led to the hospitalization of more than a dozen workers has landed a local company in hot water with the state.
Last month, the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) Occupational Health and Safety Bureau (OHSB) cited Southwest Cheese Company for five serious violations following a January inspection of the company’s Clovis plant.
According to state records, there was a serious incident inside one of the facility’s chemical mixing areas in late December that involved a hazardous chlorine gas release.
State inspectors said that two separate equipment failures occurred in a part of the plant that’s responsible for automated sanitation processes using industrial-strength cleaning agents. During the incident, a high-level switch on a tank of a bleach-based disinfectant failed. Meanwhile, a fill valve on another tank containing a blend of nitric and phosphoric acid failed to fully close at the same time.
As both tanks overflowed, the chemicals mixed on the floor, triggering the release of chlorine gas. The citation notes that 26 employees working in nearby areas required medical evaluation after the gas release. Of those, 14 were hospitalized.
Exposure to even a small amount of chlorine gas can cause severe respiratory issues. In this case, the gas levels were reportedly at least 30 times higher than the OSHA-permitted ceiling limit and 75 times above short-term exposure guidelines set by industry health standards.
According to the citation, the potential for chlorine gas exposure in cheese plant CIP rooms is “a well-documented and recognized hazard within the food processing industry.” Nevertheless, the citation outlines a number of preventable factors that contributed to the incident, including lack of gas monitoring systems, no emergency ventilation in place and failure to properly contain incompatible chemicals.
Compliance officers also found that the doors to the chemical room were left open. The plant’s negative-pressure ventilation system requires that those doors remain closed, so it can pull hazardous fumes away from employee work areas. This oversight arguably contributed to the spread of chlorine gas into adjacent work zones.
Additionally, Southwest Cheese was also cited for not training employees on how to evacuate during a chemical emergency. According to the citation, the company did have an emergency action plan that designated specific workers for this task, but those designated employees never received the required training to carry out evacuations in a safe and orderly manner.
The state also said that the poor conditions of both the high-level switch and fill valve were contributing factors in the accident, and cited the company for allowing malfunctioning or damaged parts to remain in use.
Each of the five violations was classified as “serious” and carried a penalty of $16,554, bringing the total proposed fine to $82,770.
Southwest Cheese Company’s Clovis plant is one of the largest cheese-processing facilities in the nation. The company plays a significant role in New Mexico’s dairy industry, which ranks among the top agricultural moneymakers for the state.
The company did not respond to a request for comment.