WASHINGTON -- The Republican campaign to take away all federal funding from National Public Radio (NPR) was over before it began, with GOP lawmakers' procedural trick to force a vote on the issue failing on Thursday. It was the first GOP-ordered House vote since the election.
The proposal to defund NPR was the latest winning item on the Republicans' gimmicky YouCut site, which allows the public to pick the cuts they would like to see receive an up-or-down vote on the House floor. In order to get these votes, they try to make a procedural vote on an unrelated piece of legislation the vote on the YouCut item.
"This week's winning YouCut proposal is sponsored by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), and would terminate all taxpayer funding of National Public Radio (NPR), saving taxpayers potentially tens of millions of -- perhaps even over a hundred million -- dollars," read a release from Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) office. "Implementing this initiative would signal that the days of bailing out irresponsible decision-makers at taxpayers' expense are over.
Democrats easily scuttled the GOP maneuver on Thursday, voting 239-171 to close debate on the underlying measure and move on, without voting on the NPR proposal.
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