As Republican Senate leaders try to round up the votes for a $9.4 billion rescission package, they seem to have overcome a key concern for at least one senator without even changing the legislation.
Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota has expressed dissatisfaction with the rescission bill over the roughly $1 billion in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS. Rounds has been clear that, in rural states like his, cutting those funds could disconnect some of his constituents from one of their few sources of news.
But Rounds said Tuesday that he was making a sudden about-face, after striking a deal with the Office of Management and Budget. The deal, which Rounds assured reporters is legal, takes Green New Deal funds and transfers them to the Department of the Interior, keeping about $10 million in fiscal year 2026 funding for 14 tribal radio station grants in rural areas across the country.