Paul believes Senate vote for NPR, PBS cuts will be 'very close'

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that President Trump’s request to cut billions in funding to public broadcasters NPR and PBS would face a “very close” vote in the Senate.

“I suspect it’s going to be very close. I don’t know if it will be modified in advance, but I can’t really honestly look Americans in the face and say that I’m going to be doing something about the deficit if I can’t cut $9 billion,” Paul told CBS’s Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.”

Republicans including Sens. Mike Rounds (S.D.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) have expressed reservations about making deep cuts to NPR and PBS. Some in the GOP are also wary of pulling funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the global HIV/AIDS program started under President George W. Bush.

Senators will work out the details of the rescissions package this week, facing a Friday deadline to approve the cuts.

“Even though there are people who make arguments for it, and I can make an argument for a different way to cut it, we’re going to be presented with a $9 billion cut and a $2.2 trillion deficit,” Paul said. “So we have to cut spending. Absolutely have to cut spending.”

On Thursday, President Trump threatened to withhold his backing for any Republican who goes against the rescissions package, which includes sweeping cuts to foreign aid and public media.

“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,” a Truth Social post from the president said.

“Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement,” he added.

Rounds and other senators have raised fears about the impact of public broadcasting cuts on rural areas that rely on local, government-funded stations for information. Rounds told reporters he planned to negotiate with the White House Office of Management and Budget to tweak the cuts.

“It’s not our goal to come back in and totally eliminate a number of the rescissions, but specifically to take care of those that were in some of these rural areas,” Rounds said, according to Deseret News. “This is their way of getting emergency messages out to people. That’s the way in which they communicate in a very rural area.”