(This story has been updated to add information.)
Ahead of a potentially tight vote that could defund the country’s NPR and PBS stations, Indiana’s two Republican U.S. senators have voiced their support for the legislation.
By the end of the week, the U.S. Senate must vote on a $9.4 billion package of federal spending cuts. That rescissions bill would include $1.1 billion slashed over the next two years for stations that are part of National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service.
Indiana’s nine representatives voted along party lines when the U.S. House passed the bill on June 12.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has sought to defund public media, asserting it has a liberal bias that thwarts fair coverage. NPR and PBS have repeatedly refuted these claims, and NPR is suing his administration on First Amendment grounds.
U.S. Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana is among Republicans who have joined Trump in condemning public media and calling for a dismantling of the federal support system created by Congress in the 1960s.
However, this bill could test Republicans’ slim Senate majority. Not everyone in the Republican caucus is on board with the public media cuts.
If passed, cuts will most intensely impact small and rural public radio and television stations more than major cities and NPR at large. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota say they are particularly concerned about their rural communities losing access to critical and sometimes life-saving news coverage.
In a July 10 Truth Social post, Trump threatened not to endorse Republicans who attempt to preserve public media funding and “allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting.”
In Indiana, some of the small and rural stations could close if the federal bill passes, Executive Director Mark Newman said. Last week, a cohort of statewide journalists was told they would be laid off following the state’s zeroing out of its $7.4 million in public media support.
“If that other shoe drops, that’s going to have some significant impact,” Newman previously told IndyStar. “That’s really going to change things even more dramatically.”
Sen. Jim Banks
Banks has earned a reputation as one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in the Senate. He, too, has repeatedly called to eliminate federal money for public media.
In an X thread from early June, he was especially critical of stories about Hunter Biden’s legal battles, a debunked COVID-19 lab leak conspiracy theory, and research related to race and the LGBTQ community.
Earlier this year, Banks authored the Defund NPR Act, a separate bill that would bar federal dollars from going to NPR directly or indirectly. The bill has not moved since it was sent to committee in February.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund NPR’s liberal propaganda,” he said in a previous news release. “If NPR can’t stay afloat without government funding, that tells you all you need to know about the quality of their news.”
Sen. Todd Young
While Banks has loudly supported public media spending cuts for months, Young hadn’t taken a stance until July 15 when he posted on X that he supports the “appropriately targeted” cuts. He has not otherwise addressed whether he believes NPR and PBS should be defunded.
The USA TODAY Network – Indiana’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Vote to defund public media nears. Where do Indiana’s Jim Banks and Todd Young stand?
Reporting by Cate Charron, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
