Latest news with #Murkowski
The Hill
23-07-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Murkowski: Trump administration funding freeze could result in ‘closing schools'
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) fears the Trump administration's multi-billion dollar education funding freeze could cause schools in her state to close as districts struggle to keep employees without the money. The administration originally froze a total of $6 billion in funding to schools, affecting after-school and summer programs, along with classes for adult and English learners. Last week, the president released around $1 billion that was aimed at after-school programs, but $5 billion is still held up. 'Many of our school districts have already made really hard decisions about closing schools,' Murkowski told ABC News. 'Both in Fairbanks and Anchorage, we've seen layoffs,' she continued. 'If your literacy skills are weak, if you're working on your English skills, I mean, these are all things that are keeping people out of the workforce at a time when we're trying to get people into it,' Murkowski added. 'So I am very worried.' She was one of nine Republicans to sign a letter to the Office of Management and Budget last week demanding the funding be released and rejecting the administration's claim that the money is going towards 'woke' programs. The letter prompted the office to release the around $1 billion in funding for after-school and summer programming, prompting a sigh of relief for parents. But the rest of the money is still in limbo with no timeline on when it will be given to schools. 'I'd like to see some of the other programs released, but, you know, we haven't heard one way or the other,' Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( who led the Republican letter, told ABC. While Murkowski is hesitant to say the money is cut, she stresses the funding needs to be released before the school year begins. 'I don't want to call it cuts yet, because my hope is that they're just unpaused and that they are going to materialize,' Murkowski told ABC News.
23-07-2025
- Business
Murkowski worries Trump administration's $6B funding freeze could result in 'closing schools'
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she's worried the Trump administration's federal education funding freeze could mean "closing schools" in her home state. "Many of our school districts have already made really hard decisions about closing schools," Murkowski said in the wake of three of Alaska's school districts suing the Trump administration for freezing more than roughly $6 billion dollars in congressionally authorized federal education funding nationwide. "Both in Fairbanks and Anchorage, we've seen layoffs," Murkowski said. Earlier this month, the Anchorage School District announced in a letter to the community that the district had already begun laying off some staff members after $46 million was impacted by the pause. The district receives about a third of the state's federal education funds, according to Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt. "I wish I could say that we were really solid on the state level, but we're not. And now there's questions on the federal level as well," Murkowski added. Murkowski and nine other Republican senators signed onto a letter last week requesting the Trump administration reverse the funding pause, which they said prompted the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to unfreeze more than $1 billion in after-school and summer learning funding. However, OMB did not indicate whether it would be unfreezing the rest of the roughly $6 billion in federal funds for programs, such as English language learning, educator development and adult education, among others. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, led the group of 10 senators signing on to the letter. She told ABC News that she hopes the administration can successfully restore all education funding to states by time school starts. "I'd like to see some of the other programs released, but, you know, we haven't heard one way or the other," Moore Capito told ABC News. School district leaders are now scrambling due to the uncertainty, according to state officials who've spoken to ABC News. At least two dozen states, several school districts and education advocacy groups have now sued the administration over the funding freeze. An OMB spokesman said the funds are under review for "grossly" misusing programs that promote "radial leftwing agendas." But Murkowski slammed the administration for contending that districts in Alaska pushed programs with radical ideology. She said the programs are not "woke or ideologically out of line." Murkowski fears the programmatic review from the OMB -- the stated reason for the freeze -- could stretch into the school year, suggesting it would harm adult and English language learners the most. The delayed funding could in turn impact the workforce, according to Murkowski. "If your literacy skills are weak, if you're working on your English skills, I mean, these are all things that are keeping people out of the workforce at a time when we're trying to get people into it," Murkowski said, adding "So I am very worried." Since the funding pause ensued on July 1, North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven said he has been hearing from concerned educators in his state as well. Hoeven was relieved when the after-school and summer learning grants were unfrozen because they, too, help the workforce, he said. With funding for those programs secured, parents won't have to make other arrangements for their children, potentially missing work to do so, Hoeven told ABC News. "That was the one that was most timely." Hoeven and Murkowski said they're reaching out to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, hoping she can help release the additional funding to schools. OMB hasn't made a decision yet on how long its review will take. ABC News has reached out to the Education Department for comment. Meanwhile, Arkansas Republican Sen. John Boozman said at this point unfreezing any aid is a positive first step. "The good news is that we are moving in the right direction," Boozman told ABC News. "Hopefully we can get them [the rest of funding] restored as soon as possible." As the school year approaches, Murkowski stressed that the administration must move quickly. "I don't want to call it cuts yet, because my hope is that they're just unpaused and that they are going to materialize," she said. The senator, who grew up in Alaska and raised her children there, told ABC News that she is hopeful McMahon understands that rural communities will suffer without critical education programs.
Irish Daily Star
22-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Daily Star
Republican senator admits she feels 'cheated' by Trump administration after megabill passed
The Alaska senator accused Trump of going against the bill that he himself had signed into law Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said Friday that she felt "cheated" after a concession she won in President Donald Trump 's July 4 spending bill to protect green energy projects was immediately stripped away by her fellow party members. Despite the megabill's funding cuts for solar and wind projects, Murkowski had successfully negotiated protections for a 12-month window for such projects in Alaska to continue receiving tax credits. Trump and his administration issued recent orders designed to suppress solar and wind projects, however, effectively taking back the exception they had issued Murkowski, she said. ' I feel cheated,' she said Friday. 'I feel like we made a deal and then hours later, a deal was made to somebody else.' READ MORE: Trump's 'big beautiful' bill will be seen as 'mass extinction event' as voters reel from brutal cuts The executive order, issued by Trump just days after the concession passed, could lead to a rewrite of federal regulations that would limit the tax credit award for some solar and wind projects, according to Anchorage Daily News. It also will remove what it calls "preferential treatment" from wind and solar over other projects such as oil, natural gas and hydropower. Murkowski said Friday that the order 'just pulls the rug out from from underneath the deal' she'd made for the 12-month window for tax credits, a way to protect green energy projects needed to combat the incoming energy crisis in Alaska. "I read it as just a total affront to what we had negotiated." 'If you were looking for something proof-positive that the administration is looking to literally cut off a sector of the energy industry, it couldn't be more compelling than first the EO and now the (Interior directive),' she said. Though she has strongly advocated for the development of oil and gas projects in her state, Murkowski said that a broad approach to energy investment, including in solar and wind, is in the best interest of Alaskans. She said that she believes a mix of energy sources may help to resolve a looming shortage of natural gas along the Railbelt grid, an area that encompasses Anchorage and Fairbanks. Article continues below The Trump administration, however, appears to be focused on halting clean energy development, she said. 'Do I feel like the administration was not being up-front with us? Yes,' she said. 'I said, 'Well, I got a hard-won fight on this is clean energy provision. It's not everything that I wanted, but it's going to keep some of our projects alive, and that's important.' 'So now you have an executive order that goes against what the president himself signed into law, in my view,' she said.
UPI
18-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Coming PBS, NPR cuts already hurting many stations
The headquarters for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., in May. Early Friday morning the House of Representatives passed President Donald Trump's bill to cut PBS and NPR funding. File photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo July 18 (UPI) -- A bill rescinding $1.1 billion in funds to public broadcasting is awaiting President Donald Trump's signature, and many critics, including some Republicans, say it will devastate some rural areas and even put the country in danger. The claw-back bill will cut $9 billion in total, including major reductions to foreign aid. It passed the House early Friday morning. The public stations already have received funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to get them through September. Once that money runs out, more than 100 PBS and NPR stations are at risk of closing. The cuts will hit especially hard in rural areas. For example, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit off the coast of Alaska on Wednesday. Public media helped broadcast a tsunami alert, said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. "Their response to today's earthquake is a perfect example of the incredible public service these stations provide," Murkowski said Wednesday on X. "They deliver local news, weather updates, and, yes, emergency alerts that save human lives." Murkowski was one of two Republican senators who voted against the bill. The effects of the cutting off of funding could be even wider-reaching than expected, obsersers said. "Failing stations will create a cascade effect in this highly connected and interdependent system, impacting content producers and leading to the potential collapse of additional distressed stations in other areas of the country," Tim Isgitt, CEO of advisory firm Public Media Company, told The New York Times. An analysis by non-profit Public Media Company identified 78 public radio organizations and 37 TV organizations that will likely close. They rely on funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for about 30% of their budgets. "I think unfortunately this is cutting off their constituents' noses to spite NPR's face," NPR CEO Katherine Maher said Wednesday on CNN. "It doesn't help anyone to take this funding away." PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger said in a statement that the cuts "will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas." "Many of our stations, which provide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts, will now be forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead," she said. Reporting on local issues will see cuts, too. Michigan's WKAR Public Media general manager Shawn Turner said he has already had to lay off nine staffers because of the impending cuts, noting that about 16% of WKAR's budget comes from federal funding. The cuts will prevent the newsroom from doing investigations into issues like the impact of tariffs on Michigan's manufacturing industry, he said. "We've been able to ask [reporters] to begin to do a deep dive in really understanding how that's going to impact the community so that we have that reporting ready to go," Turner said. "Our ability to do that going forward is going to be limited." Native American areas will also suffer from the cuts. They pose "an immediate threat to the survival of small, rural, and Tribal stations across the country," said Loris Taylor, head of Native Public Media. "These hyperlocal stations, many of which are the only source of local news, emergency alerts, educational programming, and cultural preservation, operate with limited resources and rely on [the Corporation for Public Broadcasting] funding to stay on the air." Taylor heads a network of 57 Native radio stations. She had privately implored Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., to reject the package, The New York Times reported Wednesday. "Without this federal support, Native and rural communities stand to lose critical lifelines that connect them to the rest of the nation," she said.
NBC News
18-07-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Public broadcasters say GOP funding cuts could be 'devastating' to local media and make Americans less safe
When a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck off southern Alaska on Wednesday, officials were concerned about a potential tsunami. It was local public media that helped relay a tsunami alert, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said. But now, looming GOP-led funding cuts are concerning media allies that local public broadcasters would be forced to downsize or shutter, damaging news operations and hurting locals' ability to get timely emergency alerts like the one issued in Alaska. "Their response to today's earthquake is a perfect example of the incredible public service these stations provide," Murkowski, of Alaska, one of two Republican senators to oppose the cuts, said Wednesday on X. "They deliver local news, weather updates, and, yes, emergency alerts that save human lives." More than 50 years after NPR and PBS first hit the airwaves, the two public broadcasters with hundreds of member stations face millions in budget cuts after Republican senators voted to claw back previously appropriated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which funds public media like NPR and PBS. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the legislation into law when it reaches his desk. Republicans have framed the spending cuts bill as part of an effort to target purported "waste, fraud and abuse" in government-funded programs. GOP lawmakers have accused NPR and PBS of having a liberal bias, and in March, Republicans claimed that they were "anti-American airwaves." But media advocates argue that the cuts would have devastating effects on the American media landscape and an especially harmful impact on rural Americans, who may rely more heavily on local NPR and PBS stations for local news. "I think unfortunately this is cutting off their constituents' noses to spite NPR's face," NPR CEO Katherine Maher said Wednesday on CNN. "It doesn't help anyone to take this funding away.' PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger said in a statement after the vote that the cuts would 'significantly' affect PBS stations, saying they 'will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas.' 'Many of our stations, which provide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts, will now be forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,' she said. 'Death sentence' for local stations More than 70% of the government funding appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting goes to the 1,500 public television and radio stations, according to the company. (In contrast, NPR says it gets about 1% of its annual funding from the government, though it also gets about a third through member stations, which are partly government-funded to varying degrees. PBS says it gets about 15% of its funds from the government.) Patricia Harrison, the president and CEO of CPB, said in a statement that eliminating funding for CPB would force many local stations to shut down. "Millions of Americans will have less trustworthy information about their communities, states, country, and world with which to make decisions about the quality of their lives," she said. The cuts would come as the number of local outlets in the United States continues steadily declining. A report last year by Northwestern University's Medill Local News Initiative found that newspapers were disappearing at a rate of more than two per week and that 3.5 million people live in counties with no local news outlets consistently producing content. "This could be a death sentence for a number of local stations," said Tim Franklin, the initiative's director. NPR and PBS rely on a combination of federal sources, including the government and private donations. Media experts warned that local stations in more rural areas could bear the brunt of cuts. Stations in rural areas "are more reliant on the federal funding because there is a smaller population for them to raise additional funds from and there's less of a commercial incentive to be there," said Kate Riley, the president and CEO of the nonprofit America's Public Television Stations. Some stations are already downsizing in anticipation of funding cuts. Shawn Turner, the general manager of WKAR Public Media in Michigan, said he has already had to lay off nine staffers in anticipation of federal cuts. About 16% of WKAR's budget comes from federal funding, he said. The cuts, Turner said, would affect the newsroom's ability to devote resources to deep dives into issues like the impact of tariffs on Michigan's manufacturing industry. "We've been able to ask them to begin to do a deep dive in really understanding how that's going to impact the community so that we have that reporting ready to go," Turner said. "Our ability to do that going forward is going to be limited." Local public broadcasters also play a key role in disseminating emergency alerts and timely updates during natural disasters, advocates say. There are no viable alternatives in some communities, and locals cannot rely on social media for accurate updates, said Clayton Weimers, the executive director of Reporters Without Borders in the United States. "Going online is not a viable alternative because it is such a cesspool of false information, and that cesspool gets even murkier in times of crisis," Weimers said. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday shot down concerns over the impact of public media cuts on safety. "I am not sure how NPR helps the public safety of our country, but I do know that NPR, unfortunately, has become really just a propaganda voice for the left," she said. Trump signed an executive order in May directing CPB to cut funding for NPR and PBS, framing them as "biased media." Maher, NPR's CEO, said Thursday that national programming makes up a quarter of programming of all stations, with the other 75% representing 'local programming, local needs and other national programmers.' 'We want to make sure that we're available and relevant to the entire American public, regardless of where you sit and regardless of what your political beliefs are, and we've been taking the steps from an editorial standpoint to better understand what audience needs are and have more voices on air,' Maher said on NBC's 'Meet the Press NOW.' Local station leaders are also pushing back against the administration, some of them arguing that it is interfering with a free and independent media. "I think that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created to be independent and free from political interference and that the U.S. government has no place meddling in the editorial decisions or punishing the editorial decisions of NPR and PBS," said Sage Smiley, the news director of Alaska public media station KYUK. Tim Richardson, the program manager for journalism and disinformation at the free expression advocacy group PEN America, called the new GOP cuts punitive. 'These cuts are not about fiscal responsibility. It's once again about punishing independent journalism, independent outlets that don't adhere to the administration's narrative of events," he said. "It's a viewpoint discrimination with the end goal of, you know, undermining editorial, editorial independence.' White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields responded in a statement Thursday that 'NPR and PBS will have to learn to survive on their own' without 'taxpayer subsidies.' Public media have faced threats from Republican presidents before, including during Trump's first term. Richard Nixon, for example, "pounced on it almost immediately," said Victor Pickard, a media professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "I think it's fair to say that every Republican president, save for perhaps Gerald Ford, has had somewhat of an adversarial position towards public broadcasting," Pickard said.
