Senate claws back $9B in public broadcasting, foreign aid. How Iowa's senators voted
- The Senate approved a spending cuts package, clawing back $9 billion from public broadcasting, global health, and foreign aid programs.
- Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst voted in favor of the cuts, while two Republicans and all Democrats opposed them.
- The bill now goes to the House for approval of the Senate's changes before going to President Trump's desk.
Republicans in Congress — with the help of Iowa's two U.S. senators — are one step closer to officially clawing back $9 billion in federal funds from public broadcasting, global health initiatives and other foreign aid programs.
The Senate narrowly approved a spending cuts package 51-48 in the early morning hours of Thursday, July 17, following more than 12 hours of debate and marathon series of votes. Iowa Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst voted for the cuts.
Two Republican senators — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — voted against the measure, along with all Democrats.
The legislation, which President Donald Trump formally requested in early June, represents a sliver of the nearly $200 billion in government savings the Department of Government Efficiency reports it has made.
Once approved by the House and signed by Trump, the measure would strip billions in allocations from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, and foreign aid agencies including the World Health Organization and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
What's the potential impact on Iowa public broadcasting?
Andrew Batt, Iowa PBS executive director, told the Register in June that the cuts could impact Iowa programming such as "Road Trip Iowa" or live coverage of college wrestling meets and degrade its extreme weather warning system, particularly in rural areas of the state.
Batt said in a previously released statement that the cuts "will impact all of the services we provide here in Iowa. This includes our ability to share our favorite programs, as well as our educational outreach in our schools and local libraries."
At Iowa Public Radio, 10% of its funding, about $1 million, came from Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants in the last year, Myrna Johnson, executive director for IPR, told the Register in June.
"There would be tough choices to make," Johnson said. "But we have not yet made those choices."
Now that the Senate has signed off on the rescission package, the bill returns to the House, where lawmakers must approve the upper chamber's changes.
The Senate removed a $400 million cut to AIDS prevention during the hours-long deliberation process ahead of the final vote.
Here's what Iowa's senators said about their votes in favor of the cuts:
Sen. Joni Ernst
Ernst, who leads the Senate DOGE caucus, hailed the spending cuts. She posted on social media: "Taxpayers will no longer be forced to fund partisan propaganda at NPR or Sesame Street programming in Iraq."
"A win for common sense, but there’s no time to rest," Ernst said. "It is time to prepare another rescissions package!"
Ernst has faced criticism at a recent Iowa town hall in which crowd members decried spending cuts to programs such as Medicaid that were rolled into Trump's massive tax cut and spending bill that he recently signed into law.
When a crowd member said the Medicaid cuts would cost lives, Ernst responded, "Well, we all are going to die." The next day, she posted a sarcastic apology video while walking through a cemetery.
Ernst is up for reelection in 2026, and while she hasn't formally announced her candidacy, she has hired a campaign manager. In the second quarter of 2025, Ernst raised $723,000, slightly more than her Democratic challengers.
Sen. Chuck Grassley
Grassley on Thursday morning had not yet posted comments on the rescission bill following his vote in favor.
(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)