Responding to a new attempt by House GOP lawmakers to defund NPR, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is hitting up supporters for cash to help defend the embattled public broadcaster.
“We can’t let this outrage go unchallenged,” a fundraising e-mail from DCCC chair Steve Israel on Wednesday read. “Republicans and their right-wing media backers are gearing up for this fight, and they’re hoping grassroots Democrats like you will stay on the sidelines.”
The House Rules Committee held an emergency hearing the same day on a bill that would prohibit any federal funding from going to NPR, with a vote expected in Congress on Thursday.
Several Democrats have objected to the urgency behind the meeting, suggesting instead that the bill go through a normal committee process rather than shoot to the front of the line for a vote.
“This is not an emergency meeting,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) said in the hearing. “Emergency meeting to me means we’re doing something about jobs and putting people back to work. That’s not what this is doing.”
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who appeared in the hearing to testify against government funding of NPR, insisted that the bill was a legitimate priority.
“Finding areas to review how federal dollars are used is something that has to be a priority,” she said. “Now if you can say is it an emergency, is its a crisis, is it this or is it that — it is what the American people have instructed us that they would like for us to do.”
The House already voted earlier this year to strip the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports NPR, of all federal funding, but the Senate rejected the bill. Republican lawmakers are trying to insert similar language into any negotiated deal with Democrats to fund the government this year.
