On the same day that the U.S. president signed legislation that claws back billions in funding for foreign aid and public media, New Mexico’s junior U.S. senator yesterday issued another round of strident warnings about the measure.
In a phone interview with KSFR, Senator Ben Ray Lujan talked about the potential harm to New Mexico communities that rely on public media.
The recission bill takes away $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corp for Public Broadcasting, which provides about half the funding for many public outlets in the state, including the radio station you’re listening to right now.
In 2024, New Mexico public radio and TV stations shared about $5.8 million in federal funding.
Lujan said his office and many others were inundated with calls after Congress approved the bill.
"We were hearing from one station after another, and not just stations, but from constituents. The phone calls that were coming in, emails that were coming in, people were reaching out to our office and to Offices Across America from stations and from people. 'Please don't do this. Please don't cut this.' Especially in states where there were recent natural disasters where leaders like you, that were on the air, that were just warning people to say, 'Hey, there's a flood coming, there's a fire—you need to get to higher ground.' These are the emergency announcements that help save people's lives."
Lujan is particularly concerned about public media in rural and tribal communities, where maintaining infrastructure will be made much more difficult by the pull-back in funding.
Those communities, he said, rely on public media heavily for a range of alerts and other community messages.
Lujan said he’s been brainstorming with the gov and state lawmakers about finding ways to fund a range of initiatives reeling from federal cuts, not just public media, but Medicaid, food assistance, and housing programs.