U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst speaks in support of USAID, public broadcasting cuts
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst praised the cuts to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) included in the bill passed in the early hours of Thursday to cancel $9 billion in federal funding for foreign aid efforts and public broadcasting.
Ernst spoke in support of the cuts made through the rescissions bill, requested by President Donald Trump's administration, that will claw back federal funding that had previously been approved, some of which were provisions targeted by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) service earlier in 2025.
The Iowa Republican has regularly criticized USAID spending and supported the DOGE cuts and the closure of the foreign aid agency.
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In remarks on the Senate floor, Ernst, who leads the DOGE Caucus, said the cuts were eliminating wasteful spending going to programs which she said should not have received money from the U.S. government through USAID, including $20 million in funding approved to produce a Sesame Street program for Iraq and $2 million for promoting tourism in Lebanon.
She also highlighted that USAID provided more than $800,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, a location theorized by some to be the origin of COVID-19.
'What exactly was our international development agency developing at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology?' Ernst said. 'Well, if the CIA, FBI, and other experts are correct that the COVID virus likely originated from a lab leak, USAID may have had a hand in a once-in-a-century pandemic that claimed the lives of millions.'
Ernst said there is 'shortage of other questionable USAID projects, but President Trump is putting an end to this deep state operation.'
'The foreign assistance programs that do advance American interests are now being administered under the watchful eye of Secretary Marco Rubio,' Ernst said. '… Overseas projects without merit are being ended and the tax dollars that were paying for them will be refunded if the Senate passes the rescissions bill.'
In addition to her comments on USAID, Ernst also said she supported canceling $1.1 billion in taxpayer support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the bill would have gone toward NPR, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and hundreds of local news stations throughout the country in the next two fiscal years. Ernst said often, programming from these outlets are 'partisan propaganda.'
'NPR and PBS have a right to say whatever the heck they want, but they don't have a right to force hardworking Americans to pay for their political propaganda being masked as a public service,' Ernst said.
All Senate Democrats who voted opposed the measure, and were joined by Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Murkowski said she opposed the cuts to federal funding for public broadcast because of the importance of these services for Alaska when facing natural disasters, pointing information shared about a potential tsunami by a local station following a 7.3 magnitude earthquake Wednesday.
Democrats also proposed amendments to change the provisions related to foreign aid — particularly for efforts related to global health and disaster relief — as well as for public broadcasting. These amendments were not adopted.
'Think about what we are doing, think about the example we are setting,' said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, said while speaking on a proposed amendment striking the cut of $496 million in international disaster assistance.
Ernst and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley voted in support of the legislation in the early morning Thursday, getting it passed the Senate in the 51-48 vote that largely fell along party lines. It must pass the U.S. House before a deadline Friday before it could make it to Trump's desk.
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