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Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, before he leaves the floor, let me thank Senator Durbin for his work on this and on so many issues exactly like this. What Senator Durbin's career has always been about is making sure that communities are stronger, more inclusive, and give everybody a shot at getting ahead, and I just want to thank him for doing this and all the times over the years that we have had a chance to work together.

Now, as Senator Durbin has indicated, a few days ago, Republicans rammed their budget bill through the Senate. In the coming weeks, they will force a vote on yet another dangerous piece of legislation. Any day now, the Senate is going to vote on a bill that will let Republicans revoke previously approved Federal funding for key services and key programs that our people rely on--all so they can follow through on Donald Trump's illegal and disastrous funding freeze he tried to implement earlier.

Under their bill, Republicans want to gut over 70 percent--7-0--70 percent of funding for public broadcasting. Now, when you hear the words ``public broadcasting,'' a lot of people, of course, think about the beloved characters Elmo and Big Bird, who are wonderful. I remember that with our kids. At the same time, public broadcasting is a lot more than that.

Over the last several years, local newspapers and radio broadcasters have been sidelined in many parts of the country. They just don't have the funds to keep their doors open. Many are getting bought up by private equity funds and corporate and media conglomerates that sanitize and repackage local reporting to fit their own media narrative.

Oftentimes, these new owners close the doors of local papers altogether. This is especially true, as Senator Durbin eloquently mentioned, and a challenge in rural areas. There, broadband access is often unreliable and often too expensive to get out far into these communities.

Meanwhile, news is increasingly driven by the interests of big cities sitting behind pay walls or requiring high-speed broadband to access it.

Now, this issue is a personal one for me. I am a journalist's kid. I grew up with a front-row seat seeing the importance of protecting reporters and the vital work they do. That work is central to our democracy.

My home State hasn't been immune to the changes in the media landscape. More and more, Oregonians turn to public TV and radio programs like Oregon Public Broadcasting for news and information. In some of my State's most rural areas, like, say, Halfway in Eastern Oregon, Oregon Public Broadcasting is the only broadcast station residents can access.

These programs are literally a lifeline for Oregonians during a time when local journalism is dying off.

Not only do these programs provide news that is trustworthy, they also serve as linchpins in State and local emergency alert programs. Oregon Public Broadcasting is a State primary station for our State's emergency alert system. The broadcasters work closely with Oregon's Office of Emergency Management and other first responders to monitor and alert residents about statewide, regional, or national emergencies.

In 2024 alone, Oregon Public Broadcasting helped notify Oregonians about child abductions, severe storms, and flash floods. Unfortunately, just this past weekend, we saw the devastating impact of underfunded emergency alert systems with the deadly flash flooding in Texas.

As more details emerge, there is one area that seems to me to be clear: More could and should have been done to bolster the local emergency alert system to help avoid and limit the horrendous tragedies that we have watched nightly for the last few days.

As extreme, deadly weather events like this become more and more common, local, State, and Federal governments need to be investing in, not shrinking, systems like public TV and radio.

These programs play such an important role in emergency situations, helping to get the most up-to-date information to their viewers and listeners. Instead, Republicans are watching the catastrophic situation unfold in Texas and still plowing ahead with plans to essentially defund these local emergency alert systems anyway.

Cutting off this funding is going to be a death sentence for one of the most reliable sources of news and information that our people rely on.

And rural areas that aren't served by big corporate media companies are going to be hit the hardest. Defunding public broadcasting is going to take news even farther away from local communities. And I know the people of my State don't want to be dealt with by somebody from a town on the eastern seaboard in a high rise.

I am going to close with this: Everything Republicans have done since gaining their trifecta of power has been with the goal of helping corporations consolidate power and profits on the backs of everybody else. And, for me, this is a regular reality because I see it as the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes and trade and healthcare. This bill is no different from what we have seen over the last few weeks in terms of corporations consolidating power and benefiting from legislation.

If it passes, this bill is going to take a wrecking ball to the services that Americans across this country rely on. It is going to make communities less safe just so Republicans can brag about another partisan ideological trophy.

So that is what we are dealing with here. When Donald Trump says: We are going to do this, Republicans say: How high should we jump?

By passing this legislation, Republicans would send a message, once again, that they are willing and eager to give up their congressional power to the executive branch.

I so appreciate Senator Durbin bringing this issue to the floor of the Senate to open a lot of eyes on what is on the line because I know he--and we have talked about this before. We believe in a government that gives everybody a fair shot, gives everybody a chance to get ahead.

You have made that point today; that government is not just supposed to be about the mighty and the powerful and the people with money. And I thank you for this and all your wonderful service.

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