Updated June 5, 2025 at 7:51 AM MDT
Top congressional Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., says President Trump's request that Congress claw back billions of dollars already set aside for foreign aid and public broadcasting is "bad on all accounts."
"The funding that this rescissions package is cutting is critical to the health and safety of people around the world," Jayapal told Morning Edition. "There are some researchers that estimate that over 300,000 people have already died just in four months as a result of the USAID cuts to humanitarian assistance and to PEPFAR, which is HIV/AIDS prevention."
The president wants Congress to take back more than $8 billion it has already appropriated for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the dismantled agency that provided assistance to foreign countries, as well as $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funnels money to local stations and the public media networks, for the next two years.
PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger warned Tuesday that clawing back these funds would disproportionately impact local public media stations in rural areas and communities. NPR CEO Katherine Maher echoed the sentiment, adding that local radio stations would face immediate budget shortfalls.
"The attack on public broadcasting is a direct attack on free press in this country," said Jayapal, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is a member of the Congressional Public Broadcasting Caucus.
The process of taking back this money is technically known as a "rescission request," and Congress has 45 days to approve or deny it. Republicans have slim majorities in both the House and Senate, so they can not afford many defections.
Trump and his Republican allies accuse NPR and PBS of partisan bias. In a memo from the White House to Congress, they also claim that federal foreign aid has been used for "radical" projects and that the cuts are part of an effort to "eliminate wasteful foreign assistance programs."
In her conversation with NPR's Steve Inskeep, Jayapal discussed the president's rescission request and the negative effects she said it could have on millions of people in and outside of the U.S.
The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Steve Inskeep: I want to ask some bottom line questions here on foreign aid, first. We've documented on NPR that pausing the aid already affected a lot of people overseas. Some people died. But part of the case against this aid is it's not America's business, not America's problem what happens overseas. In your view, what is our interest in paying for health clinics or AIDS drugs for Africa, for example?
Pramila Jayapal: I worked in global health for many years before coming to Congress, and I think that this has always been in America's interest for us to make sure that we are addressing the spread of global diseases that cross borders, making sure that we're investing in helping people to be healthy in those countries. And at the same time, using what's called our 'soft power' to help governments around the world and to build relationships and partnerships. The funding that this rescissions package is cutting is critical to the health and safety of people around the world.
And I would just say it's a tiny, tiny fraction. The entire package is a tiny fraction of what we actually spend at the federal budget.
Inskeep: That is true. I guess public broadcasting is an even tinier fraction. But let me ask a bottom line question about that. This money fundamentally goes to local stations. It provides a lot of local news. But there are other points of view about this. I talked with a conservative radio host. I think he sees public broadcasting as competition, doesn't like subsidized competition, in his view, in addition to disagreeing with what he sees as bias. What would you say to him?
Jayapal: Well, the attack on public broadcasting is a direct attack on free press in this country, because this is the way in which we ensure that 99% of Americans have access to emergency alerts, to local programming, to weather reports, that all comes through these public broadcasting stations. And I would just say that out of the grants, which are about 70% of the funding, 245 of the of the total 544 radio and TV grantees are considered rural. These are stations that have a harder time raising outside dollars. And by the way, it's $1.60 per American that goes to fund this public good, which is called the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
This digital article was produced for web by Destinee Adams and edited by Treye Green. The radio version was produced by Arezou Rezvani and Nia Dumas.
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