The Senate passed Donald Trump's set of spending cuts to public media, despite warnings it will devastate the PBS, NPR and public station ecosystem.

Academics and public radio professionals warn that budget cuts could decimate a watchdog for political corruption.

The Senate voted early Thursday to claw back $9 billion in federal funding for global aid programs and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, sending the package requested by President Trump to the House for a final vote.

Public TV stations will be “forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” PBS CEO Paula Kerger said Thursday, after the Senate approved a bill canceling all the federal funding for the network.

The rescissions package is a request from Trump to Congress to immediately rescind funding on 22 items that lawmakers have previously approved. That is a tiny portion — 0.1% — of the annual federal budget. The bulk of the cuts are to foreign aid — $8.3 billion in cuts to current funding.

The rescissions bill to claw back funding approved for foreign aid, NPR and PBS is a top Trump priority, but some Senate Republicans have raised concerns about the cuts.

"I would encourage PBS & NPR to focus more on how they managed to lose America’s trust. That is their problem, not Congress’s work to ensure good stewardship of taxpayer dollars," Carr says

The future of public broadcasting in the United States hangs in the balance as lawmakers consider a bill that could eliminate federal funding for stations like