On Friday, U.S. Congressman Tim Kennedy stopped by Buffalo’s NPR station to speak out against the House’s vote to approve a rescission package, which includes cuts to public media.
Kennedy stood outside Buffalo Toronto Public Media, calling out his colleagues in the House for first approving the broad budget cuts, including to Medicaid, and then voting to rescind funding to other programs, including public media. He said Democrats plan to drive more voters to the polls, but in the meantime, he hopes his Republican colleagues change their position.
“And we've got to take it back. We've got to go win at the voting booth," said Kennedy. "But in the meantime, all we need is four Republicans to stand up with us and say that this is wrong. Grow a spine. Stand up to this president. Don't bend the knee like he's a king, because he's not you.”
The rescission bill will cut $9 billion in money already set aside for public broadcasting and foreign aid. $1.1 billion was set to go to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes those funds to NPR, PBS and local public media stations. Kennedy called the cuts an attack on journalism as a whole.
“Look, this is unquestionably an attack on journalism across America. It's an attack on those that are holding this administration accountable, and this attack on public media has been going on for decades," he argued. "Those in power don't want accountability, and so what they're doing is attacking those that are holding them accountable.”
The House voted 216 to 213 on Friday at 12:03 a.m. The vote was largely along party lines, aside for Republican Congressmen Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Michael Turner of Ohio, who voted no with all Democrats.
Congressman Nick Langworthy, who voted for the rescission, called the cuts a "significant step towards restoring fiscal sanity and reining in Washington’s reckless spending.”
He also accused public media of being politically biased, and called the foreign aid included in the package "woke expenses overseas."
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