U.S. Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY) has voted in favor of making permanent over $9 billion in spending cuts as recommended by the Congressional Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The cuts include reductions to foreign aid and government-funded media outlets such as NPR and PBS.
“My message to DOGE is simple: keep the cuts coming,” said Congressman Barr. “We saved taxpayers almost $10B by ending the left-wing slush fund at USAID, that funded outrageous projects like building ‘Net Zero cities in Mexico’ and LGBTQ initiatives abroad. We also eliminated taxpayer funding for media outlets that were established to be non-partisan but increasingly have used taxpayer funding to promote a political agenda. While these news organizations have a right to promote left-wing causes, they don’t have a right to taxpayer money to fund it.”
The foreign aid cuts approved include various projects, such as $167,000 for education and healthcare for Ecuadorian and Venezuelan migrants, $889,000 for electoral reforms in Kenya, $33,000 for LGBTI initiatives in the Caribbean, among others.
NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher previously testified that NPR is committed to “non-partisan journalism.” However, she has made controversial statements about former President Trump. A study by Media Research Center highlighted discrepancies in NPR’s use of terms like “far-right” compared to “far-left” during their coverage from 2023-2024.
