Television Academy Chairman Cris Abrego criticized Congress for voting to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), in a speech paying tribute to the organization at the Emmy Awards on Sunday evening.

“For more than 50 years, CPB has been the backbone of American Public Media, bringing us everything from ‘Sesame Street’ to ‘Mr. Rogers Neighborhood’ to ‘Finding Your Roots’ and keeping free local stations alive across the nation,” Abrego said in his speech.

“And in many small towns, those stations weren’t just a cultural lifeline, they were the only emergency alert system families could count on,” he continued.

“But at the end of this year, CBP will close its doors because Congress has voted to defund it,” he added, as the audience booed, “and silence yet another cultural institution.”

Abrego said the move by Congress highlights the power of storytelling to unite people, even in the face of cultural divisions.

“And that’s a reminder of just how much our work here matters, especially right now in a time when division… dominates the headlines, storytelling still has the power to unite us,” he said to applause.

Abrego encouraged makers of television to continue follow in the legacy of past artists who “have seized the power of television to broaden horizons, challenge the status quo and bend that arc of history towards justice.”

“The Television Academy and all of us in this room must continue to champion that power and wield it responsibly,” he said. “In moments like this, neutrality is not enough. We must be voices for connection, inclusion, empathy.”

“Because we know that culture doesn’t come from the top down,” he continued. “It rises from the bottom up.”

Congress, in July, approved a bill to claw back billions of dollars in foreign aid and public broadcasting funds, including about $8 billion in cuts for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other foreign aid, as well as more than $1 billion in cuts to the CPB, which provides some funding to NPR and PBS.