Rescissions Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Ms. PINGREE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Connecticut for yielding the time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this reckless attack on public media contained within this rescission bill and the millions of Americans who rely on and treasure their local public television and radio stations.

Every State will feel the impact of this $1.1 billion rescission. In fact, 70 percent of these cuts will directly impact local public media stations, $770 million, including more than $4 million to my State alone.

In rural states like Maine, local stations and networks like Maine Public are often the most accessible and sometimes the only source of news and information.

Whether it is children's programs like Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger, high school basketball tournament coverage, or trusted news shows like Maine Calling, public media has been a vital part of Mainers' lives for generations.

Speaking of lives, these stations literally save lives. They send out information regarding wildfire evacuations, missing child alerts, and winter storm warnings. Storm warnings are pretty common in Maine. If there is an emergency in your town, chances are the local media station is sounding the alarm and giving the information people need to stay safe.

The purpose of public media is to inform, educate, and engage. It makes people's lives better, and it has undoubtedly made our country stronger.

This President wants nothing more than to destroy it.

This is not about fiscal responsibility or finding waste, fraud, and abuse. Mr. Speaker, do you know how much these services cost each taxpayer per year? They cost less than $2. That is less than one cup of coffee.

It is certainly not about cutting something people don't like because 76 percent of Americans support public media. In this political climate, that kind of consensus is unheard of.

This is about one thing: the President's vendetta against the free press and his authoritarian desire to control the media.

Public media enriches our lives, nourishes our minds, and makes our communities safer. It deserves to be preserved and protected, not gutted to score political points.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this rescission.

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