Sullivan ‘side-deal’ not enough to save rural Alaska public broadcasting, opponents of Trump proposal to funding cut say

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Hours before the Senate is set to vote on President Donald Trump’s $9.4 billion proposal to cut funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid, opponents said Sen. Dan Sullivan’s negotiation with the Trump administration – which a spokesperson for Sullivan argued Tuesday night would preserve rural Alaska stations – would not be enough to save them, arguing it only amounted to a one-time check to Tribal public media stations.

“I think with a side deal like this, [with it] not in the underlying legislation, it is not going to be an amendment, so we are sort of relying on different sources both within Congress and the [Trump] administration to talk about what they’ve said they’ve agreed to,” Kate Riley, CEO and President of America’s Public Television Stations said.

But details of how the deal could potentially impact Alaska remain unclear.

Sullivan’s Tuesday night statement announcing the deal, from the senator’s spokesperson Amanda Coyne, did not clarify the framework of how the funding would be allocated.

“Because of the importance of public radio for rural Alaska, for years Senator Sullivan has been an advocate for funding for our rural stations, and has been working for the last number of weeks with his Senate colleagues and senior White House officials on alternative sources of funding to help keep rural radio stations on the air,” Coyne said. “Today, the administration committed to continued funding to help support our most rural stations.”

“As I understand it, there are no officially recognized ‘tribal’ stations in Alaska,” Alaska Public Media President and CEO Ed Ulman told Alaska’s News Source Wednesday. “Only Koahnic Broadcasting Corporation, which operates KNBA, is owned and operated by Alaska Natives.”

Leading up to Wednesday’s debate, last month KNBA President and CEO Jaclyn Sallee released a joint statement with 11 other Alaska public media stations explaining the potential impact.

“KNBA 90.3, could lose nearly 25% of its annual revenue, leading to cuts in service including local Alaska Native news and emergency alerts. Our award-winning national Native programs, Native America Calling and National Native News, part of daily schedules on stations across Alaska, would experience an even greater loss – one from which they might not be able to recover,“ she said. ”More than 60 tribal stations we serve would be disproportionately impacted where they offer efficient emergency alerts and vital community connections.”

The deal, according to Riley’s numbers, would potentially mean Alaska having to split $9.4 million among 28 Tribal stations in eight other states. She said those cuts would come out of reallocated programs from the Department of the Interior.

Senator Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, who was also reportedly part of the negotiations with the White House, said on X yesterday that cuts from the Green New Deal would fund these Tribal stations.

“We wanted to make sure tribal broadcast services in South Dakota continued to operate which provide potentially lifesaving emergency alerts,” he said. “We worked with the Trump administration to find Green New Deal money that could be reallocated to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption.”

The funding, however, will not come in the way of additional legislation or an amendment to the president’s bill currently being discussed by the Senate. So far, Riley said, it only amounts to a Trump administration promise to provide support.

Though 28 Tribal stations would benefit from the promise, she added the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, where funds to local stations would be cut from, provides support to 36 Tribal stations. She did not know which 28 stations would be supported.

Riley said the “side deal” also left unanswered what happens to other rural community public media stations.

“Those are not the only stations that serve native populations and there are many of our local stations that are providing service in communities where there are no other local media sources and no other broadcasters,” she said. “We think it’s critically important that all of those local station services be protected.”

Following America’s Public Television Station’s statement Wednesday, Alaska’s News Source reached out to Sullivan’s office who declined an interview.

When Alaska’s News Source first informed Alaska Public Media’s Ulman about Sullivan’s negotiation Tuesday, Ulman said he was “blindsided.”

“I can tell you for a fact that multiple folks in the state of Alaska have explained to the senator and his office how [public media] works and how [the Corporation for Public Broadcasting] is essential to ensuring that the 27 public media outlets in Alaska can remain in operation,” Ulman said. “So, this isn’t even a compromise. It’s just not gonna work.”

Ulman said Alaska stands to lose more than $30 million in federal funding over the next two years, if the bill is passed.

″It’s a 20% cut to Alaska Public media’s operational budget. How do you run your household If you took a 20 Percent pay cut,” Ulman told Alaska’s News Source Wednesday. “Any type of cut that’s 50% or higher to an annual budget. You’re not the same organization and you can’t cut half of your operation and continue to really thrive.”

He added he’s concerned over how the promised funding to Alaska Native stations would be apportioned, and worried that hedging a bet on a promise from the Trump administration may be problematic.

“I want to see the details. If I were one of my colleagues, say in Petersburg, or in Talkeetna, (or in) Galena, I would want to know the deal. How is this really going to affect me?”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, told reporters in the halls of Congress Wednesday that the public media funding bill was crucial to Alaska.

“There has been probably no issue, no single issue, that has drawn out more interest across the state of Alaksa than support for public broadcasting,” she said. “I come from a state that is extraordinarily rural. I come from a state where access to other forms of information and communication may be limited. It may just come by way of your radio. Call it old school, it’s what we live in many parts of the state.”

Murkowski was one of only three Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, who voted not to move forward with a vote, while Sullivan joined most other Republicans in voting to move forward on the bill.

“For years, in numerous meetings, Senator Sullivan has been consistently warning executives from public media entities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and NPR that their biased programming and reporting, funded in part by the American taxpayer, would eventually jeopardize federal support for both national and local radio stations,” Coyne said.

As of publication, the Senate is voting on adding amendments to the legislation. If any amendments are approved by the legislature, the bill will be sent back to the House. The bill must pass Congress by Friday. Riley said she expected the vote to be close.

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