Sen. Lisa Murkowski spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday to express her opposition to the proposed federal rescissions package, which seeks to cancel roughly $9.4 billion in previously approved government spending.
The package, supported by President Donald Trump, targets $8.3 billion in foreign aid and $1.1 billion in domestic programs, including funds allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Murkowski, criticized the proposal for undermining commitments already made by Congress. She raised concerns about the potential impact on communities that had been counting on this funding for infrastructure, public services, and other local priorities.
“It’s not that I don’t think we should be doing more when it comes to ensuring that we’re working to get our levels of spending down,” she said, although she has no history of attempting to reduce spending and a long history of supporting increased spending.
“But I also think we need to be doing more as legislators, more as lawmakers, more as senators when it comes to our own authorities, our constitutional authorities, when it comes to the power the purse. We do rescissions. We do rescissions in our annual budget bills, in our own appropriations bills, in fact, bills we are working on right now as appropriators. We’ve got a series of markups that are going to be coming up this week, we had some last week. We do this. We look to provisions that have been included in the budgets, we look to programs, we look to rescind. We do that as legislators. There’s a good reason I think we haven’t seen a successful rescissions package before the senate for in almost 33 years. It’s because we’ve recognized that hey, that’s our role here,” she said.
She spoke to not knowing which specific accounts could be impacted and said she wanted more clarity from the Administration. And she lamented she hadn’t gotten enough information about global health programs that would be cut. Then she strongly defended the Corporation for Pubic Broadcasting.
“You don’t need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting.” She said if public broadcasting is biased, that could be addressed in a different way, although she has never suggested this before.
It was five minutes of, essentially, her opposition to Donald Trump, who was elected by 54.4% in Alaska in 2024.
Murkowski was one of three Republicans who tried to block the package from coming to the Senate floor. Vice President JD Vance had to come into the Senate chambers and break the tie to move it forward. With Senate Democrats largely unified against the measure, its passage remains uncertain.
A final vote on the rescissions package is expected later this week.
Alaska keeps electing this rino. What do you expect?
Kenneth; You do not like the Senior Senator Murkowski from the great state of Alaska? You must have hated Senator Ted Stevens as Murkowski and Stevens were nearly identical on policy, both pro-choice, no on foreign owned pebble, both had never seen a defense spending bill they did not like, both brought more money to their state’s than any other Senator for their state respectively per capita.
Murkowski brought us new fighter squadrons, Ticonderoga class destroyers, Ford class aircraft carriers for our nation. Broadband for rural Alaska, new infrastructure package, new bridges and highways through federal grants.
Or maybe you were not here long enough to know Senator Ted Stevens and you really did not know Murkowski’s accomplishments? Her yea vote on the Big, beautiful Bill?
Summarize; This post contains nothing but conservative political accomplishments and values of two great Alaska Senator’s.
Her ” accomplishments ” like confirming an Interior Secretary that blocked Alaska’s economy in favor of New Mexico’s. Somehow I doubt Uncle Ted would have done that. You can just quit your false piety
That woman wears me out. I don’t need to listen to her whine for five minutes. She needs to go.
Funny how Congress rubber stamped Biden. No problems then.
Put a sock in it Lisa
Dang! What have you got against…….Socks???
As usual she is sucking up the native votes in the villages. She would never make it without her uniformed voters who rely on her (our) hand outs.
And the Princess plays her FIDDLE while the Nations Economy from 30+ Trillion Dollars of DEBT put All The States in financial jeopardy.
More Murkowski Pork.
She will lose all of her native corporations easy money for her ngo’s if this happens. How dare they have to share their riches to support tax payers funded gimme.
Senator Murkowski has a point. She’s not defending all government spending, but saying Congress has the Constitutional power of the purse and funding decisions should go through the proper legislative process, like appropriations committees, not cut by the president. And wanting more details before eliminating funding, especially for global health programs and I agree. I personally donate to children’s charities, and it bothers me that for all the trillions our government wastes, the first thing on the chopping block is often aid that helps hungry children around the world. I support reducing waste and reining in spending but not at the expense of the most vulnerable. These decisions should be made carefully, transparently, and with full awareness of the real world consequences.
Bottom line here, it is not what “she wants” it’s what the majority in Alaska wants that she is supposed to be representing. As has been pointed out she had no problem rubber stamping everything that the Biden Regime dictated to her, including the worst SCOTUS justice in history.
Interesting too that she was always one of those during the Biden Regime that was with the “bipartisan group” that went to the White House to discuss various bills with Biden, has anyone asked the Princess if Biden was awake / lucid during those many trips to the White House she made?
We need this voting system fixed so we can get rid of this self serving RINO once and for all.
The sorrowful Republicans and native keep voting this piece of garbage into this job. She has done more damage to Alaska sitting on her rear pretending to be a Republican. Unfortunately for Alaska, The Alaska GOP has a bunch of deadheads tending to the office, continually begging for donations to keep their freebee rides and per diem moving along instead of censoring Murkowski and requiring all the donations returned over the years. Every time Murkowski speaks, there is nothing said or done. No wonder this state is on the losing end of the economy.
Lousey Lisa can not get enough pork!
Murking.
Episode No. 8675309.
RINO says it all. Lisa should embrace her voting record and her lefty ways out right. She’s a Democrat through and through.
I don’t think any “Conservative Republican” would vote for her. Unless there were no other Republicans to choose from on the ticket. It’s the Democrats, and “Independents”, which is code for “Democrat Light”, who keep voting her in.
Any Republican who votes for a lefty like her is in the land of denial, and should be considered, seriously delusional. She will never be a “Conservative Republican”. It just isn’t in the cards, or her DNA.
I wish the Republican party in Alaska would wake up and kick her off the Republican ticket. Oh I remember now, how that just can’t happen, because we have “Rank Choice Voting” the ultimate method to keep leftist politicians, like Lisa, who falsely holds a conservative seat, in power, in Alaska.
So “Conservative Republicans”, are effectively neutered, and under control. The Republican Party in Alaska should be ashamed. They should do better for Alaska, than a corrupt leftist politician like Lisa.