Cantwell Eyes Amendment to Strip CPB Clawback From Rescissions Package

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday she’s considering filing an amendment to the House-passed 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4) that would strike its proposed clawback of $1.1 billion in advance FY 2026 and FY 2027 funding for CPB. Public broadcasting supporters and opponents were gearing up Thursday for a showdown over the rescissions bid ahead of a potential Tuesday initial vote to begin work on an expected revised version of the measure. Meanwhile, a pair of Senate Commerce Republicans who are also on the Appropriations Committee indicated that they're still negotiating to address their concerns about how CPB defunding could affect rural public broadcasters.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that the process for considering HR-4 will “have to [begin] fairly early [next week], probably on Tuesday,” to ensure its passage by July 18. That would mark the 45-day deadline to clear a rescissions measure through Congress. The process would begin with a vote on a motion to discharge HR-4 from Senate Appropriations’ jurisdiction and bring the bill to the floor. The upper chamber would then hold votes on an unlimited number of amendments before moving to final passage.

Cantwell told us she would likely pursue an amendment to remove the CPB rescissions if Senate Appropriations “hasn’t done that already” before it reaches the floor. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee, told us she’s focused on defeating HR-4 “in its entirety” rather than pursuing an amendment to strike only the CPB language. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is eyeing an amendment to protect funding to rural Alaskan public broadcasters. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., is pressing for a carve-out to shield Native American public broadcasters, particularly funding related to transmitting emergency alerts (see 2507090062).

Cantwell said she plans to argue against rescinding CPB’s funding by making the case that public broadcasters “are part of emergency service,” as evidenced during fatal flooding in Texas (see 2507070024) and elsewhere. She said public broadcasters are “important [components of disaster response], so why not keep them?” Cantwell also raised the potential effect that CPB cuts would have on emergency alert access during a floor speech Wednesday night. Baldwin, Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico and several other Democrats also spoke Wednesday against the CPB cuts.

“We're working very hard to persuade our Republican colleagues” against all of HR-4’s proposals by arguing that “going down the rescission path is a dangerous path,” Baldwin told us. “We’re going to continue that work up until the very last minute.” She's “hopeful we'll be able to do away with [HR-4], or at least have [a rescissions package] that is … much less injurious than the one we have now.” Wisconsin Public Radio “is the primary broadcast relay for Wisconsin’s emergency alert system, including Amber Alerts and lifesaving weather alerts,” Baldwin said on the floor Wednesday night. “We need look no further than the absolutely devastating news [about the Texas flooding] to see that access to high-quality and timely information can be the difference between life and death.”

Senate LHHS Chair Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told us she's “generally supportive of” HR-4’s aims but wouldn’t say whether she wants to remove the CPB clawback. “We’re still talking about this, [and] there are a lot of details I think are going need to be worked out” before a floor vote, she said. Capito is among several Republicans who have questioned how defunding CPB would affect public broadcasters’ emergency alert role, although she didn’t address the issue during a June Appropriations hearing on HR-4 with White House OMB Director Russell Vought (see 2506250058).

Senate Communications Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who’s also an Appropriations member, remained mum Wednesday night about whether she will back the CPB cuts. “We’ll continue to get ready for the rescissions package to come up next week.” During the Vought hearing, she questioned the effect a CPB cut would have on emergency alerts and rural radio but wanted to find a replacement for the warning functionality if rural stations shutter (see 2506260039).