WASHINGTON—U.S. Representative Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) issued the following statement after House Republicans passed a bill to rescind nearly $10 billion in previously-appropriated federal funding. The bill claws back $8.3 billion in foreign aid and $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding for NPR and PBS.
“Today, House Republicans—at the request of the Trump Administration—are pushing through a bill to defund PBS and NPR. Let's be clear: these cuts are retaliation against media outlets for not towing the Administration's line. Arizonans deserve access to reliable and fair local journalism, free from government influence. I voted no.”
Stanton, a member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and Chinese Communist Party, also joined with Committee Democrats to warn that cuts to foreign assistance will “deal a critical blow to American global leadership and help the CCP curry favor on the global stage.”
“Republican efforts to cut key programs at the State Department, USAID, and related agencies deprive us of the tools needed to counter the CCP and protect our national security. Historically bipartisan funding accounts, from PEPFAR and UN contributions to the Democracy Fund, provide necessary alternatives to the CCP’s authoritarianism and malign influence for global allies and partners. The CCP has repeatedly shown its desire to replace America in the wake of the Trump Administration’s freeze of foreign assistance funding and programs. We cannot continue to cede this space to a foreign adversary like the CCP.”