America’s two big public broadcasters, PBS and NPR, have until July 18 to salvage their federal funding — starting now.
- On Tuesday, the Trump administration sent Congress a long-awaited request for lawmakers tocancel more than $1 billion in federal funds earmarked for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CPB for short, the entity that disburses taxpayer funds to local NPR and PBS stations across the country.
- The unusual request, known as a “rescission package,” starts a 45-day clock for Congress to either approve or ignore the proposal.
- Rescinding the funds only requires a simple majority, which means in this case that no Democratic votes are needed.
Take easy action here: https://protectmypublicmedia.org/
Recission comes from The Impoundment Control Act of 1974, passed after President Nixon made several attempts to control policy by refusing to spend appropriated funds,
- codifies that the appropriations power — how much agencies are to spend — belongs to Congress and not the President, as the Constitution says.
- “No officer or employee of the United States may defer any budget authority” (2 U.S. Code § 684(b))
- There are exceptions to Congress’s power over appropriations, of which one is rescission.
- The key to the exception, though, is that Congress must approve it…but
- Per the Impoundment Control Act, rescissions do not have to get past the 60-vote threshold for ending debate in the Senate (aka cloture/filibuster), so the Democrats have no way to prevent the rescission from getting the simple majority it needs.
(GovTrack)
