Did South Dakota’s congressional delegation vote to defund public broadcasting?

South Dakota U.S. Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds and Rep. Dusty Johnson voted to cut $1.1 billion in federal funding to public broadcasting.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting expects to lose $2.2 million – 23% of its budget. That will result in cuts to programming and 15-20 positions lost, SDPB said.

During a telephone town hall on July 24, Johnson praised the state’s public broadcasting network but defended the cuts due to the deficit.

“I do think when you have $37 trillion in debt, you’ve got to get back to basics,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, that was the place for the White House to try to start.”

Rounds cited the need to take “meaningful steps to reduce wasteful spending,” but he negotiated a deal with President Trump’s administration that would secure $9.1 million for Native American radio stations.

Thune said the vote was a “small but important step toward fiscal sanity.”