Joni Ernst accuses public broadcasting of “partisan propaganda”
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U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst speaks in support of USAID, public broadcasting cuts
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways: U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst praised the cuts to the Agency for International Development (USAID) included in the bill passed in the early hours of Thursday to cancel $9 billion in federal funding for foreign aid efforts and public broadcasting. The Iowa Republican has regularly criticized USAID spending and supported the DOGE cuts and the closure of the foreign aid agency. She also said she supported canceling $1.1 billion in taxpayer support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which would have gone toward NPR, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and hundreds of local news stations throughout the country in the next two fiscal years. The bill passed the Senate 51-48 along party lines, getting it passed along largely party lines. All Senate Democrats who voted opposed the measure, and were joined by Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst spoke on the U.S. Senate floor in support of the rescissions bill July 16, 2025, which included cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Photo courtesy of the office of U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst)
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst praised the cuts to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) included in the bill passed in the early hours of Thursday to cancel $9 billion in federal funding for foreign aid efforts and public broadcasting.
Ernst spoke in support of the cuts made through the rescissions bill, requested by President Donald Trump’s administration, that will claw back federal funding that had previously been approved, some of which were provisions targeted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) service earlier in 2025.
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The Iowa Republican has regularly criticized USAID spending and supported the DOGE cuts and the closure of the foreign aid agency.
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In remarks on the Senate floor, Ernst, who leads the DOGE Caucus, said the cuts were eliminating wasteful spending going to programs which she said should not have received money from the U.S. government through USAID, including $20 million in funding approved to produce a Sesame Street program for Iraq and $2 million for promoting tourism in Lebanon.
She also highlighted that USAID provided more than $800,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, a location theorized by some to be the origin of COVID-19.
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“What exactly was our international development agency developing at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology?” Ernst said. “Well, if the CIA, FBI, and other experts are correct that the COVID virus likely originated from a lab leak, USAID may have had a hand in a once-in-a-century pandemic that claimed the lives of millions.”
Ernst said there is “shortage of other questionable USAID projects, but President Trump is putting an end to this deep state operation.”
“The foreign assistance programs that do advance American interests are now being administered under the watchful eye of Secretary Marco Rubio,” Ernst said. “… Overseas projects without merit are being ended and the tax dollars that were paying for them will be refunded if the Senate passes the rescissions bill.”
In addition to her comments on USAID, Ernst also said she supported canceling $1.1 billion in taxpayer support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the bill would have gone toward NPR, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and hundreds of local news stations throughout the country in the next two fiscal years. Ernst said often, programming from these outlets are “partisan propaganda.”
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“NPR and PBS have a right to say whatever the heck they want, but they don’t have a right to force hardworking Americans to pay for their political propaganda being masked as a public service,” Ernst said.
All Senate Democrats who voted opposed the measure, and were joined by Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Murkowski said she opposed the cuts to federal funding for public broadcast because of the importance of these services for Alaska when facing natural disasters, pointing information shared about a potential tsunami by a local station following a 7.3 magnitude earthquake Wednesday.
Democrats also proposed amendments to change the provisions related to foreign aid — particularly for efforts related to global health and disaster relief — as well as for public broadcasting. These amendments were not adopted.
“Think about what we are doing, think about the example we are setting,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, said while speaking on a proposed amendment striking the cut of $496 million in international disaster assistance.
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Ernst and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley voted in support of the legislation in the early morning Thursday, getting it passed the Senate in the 51-48 vote that largely fell along party lines. It must pass the U.S. House before a deadline Friday before it could make it to Trump’s desk.
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EXCLUSIVE: Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst Team Up To Demand NPR Answer For Taxpayer-Funded Partisanship
Republican Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Ted Cruz of Texas sent National Public Radio a letter Tuesday questioning the outlet’s editorial standards. Ernst and Cruz sought answers about the findings generated from a $1.9 million “Editorial Enhancement Grant” that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) gave to NPR. Ernst: “Millions in tax dollars should not be wasted funding purely partisan propaganda.” The CPB is a non-profit corporation created in 1967 that receives funds via congressional appropriations and passes it on to NPR and PBS stations, the CPB website says. The Office of Management and Budget listed $ 1.1 billion for CPB as part of a recissions package sent to Congress Tuesday. The US government is forbidden from exercising “any direction, supervision, or control over the content or distribution of public telecommunications programs and services” under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.
Republican Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Ted Cruz of Texas sent National Public Radio (NPR) a letter Tuesday questioning the outlet’s editorial standards.
Uri Berliner, who cited examples of the publicly-funded network’s bias in an essay published by the Free Press on April 9, 2024, that outlined the network’s lack of “viewpoint diversity,” posted his resignation on X eight days later, one day after news he was suspended without pay broke. Ernst and Cruz cited the resignation in their letter, which sought answers about the findings generated from a $1.9 million “Editorial Enhancement Grant” that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) gave to NPR. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Joni Ernst Reveals Several Examples Of Bureaucrats Bilking Taxpayers)
“Millions in tax dollars should not be wasted funding purely partisan propaganda,” Ernst told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has its hand out asking for nearly $600 million in government funding but wants to keep the American people at arm’s length when it comes to transparency. That’s not going to fly. NPR has been ground zero for blatant bias in reporting and we need answers on how editorial standards are judged as Congress evaluates whether to continue trusting CPB with taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”
Ernst and Cruz accused NPR of failing to abide by the conditions of the grant, noting there were reports CPB was withholding some of the $1.9 million.
“On May 21, 2025, staff of Senator Joni Ernst corresponded with CPB, inquiring about the Editorial Enhancement Grant and CPB’s evaluation of editorial bias at NPR,” Ernst and Cruz wrote in the letter. “However, when pressed for specifics—including the terms of the grant agreement with NPR as well as copies of the interim reports NPR has provided to CPB necessitating the withholding of taxpayer funds—CPB staff responded, ‘I checked with colleagues, and unfortunately I’m not able to share the grant reporting we received due to the terms of our contract with NPR.’”
“Withholding basic information from Congress about the grants to NPR is unacceptable. It raises doubts about CPB’s commitment to transparency and public accountability,” Ernst and Cruz continued. “Ultimately, this sort of obstruction when faced with a routine congressional oversight request raises concerns about whether Congress can trust CPB to receive taxpayer funds at all, never mind the robust $595 million CPB is requesting for Fiscal Year 2027.”
The CPB is a non-profit corporation created in 1967 that receives funds via congressional appropriations and passes it on to NPR and PBS stations, the CPB website says. The Office of Management and Budget listed $1.1 billion for CPB as part of a recissions package sent to Congress Tuesday.
The United States government is forbidden from exercising “any direction, supervision, or control over the content or distribution of public telecommunications programs and services” under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.
NPR didn’t immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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Source: https://www.axios.com/local/des-moines/2025/07/18/joni-ernst-partisan-propaganda-public-broadcasting