In his first vote against the Trump administration since the president retook office, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) opposed the White House’s multibillion dollar rescission request Thursday over his support of public radio.

The Trump administration sent Congress a package of 21 already-approved expenditures that the president wanted Congress to claw back. The funding had been targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as part of its mission to slash federal spending. Successful passage would codify the cancellations for funds that have been appropriated by an earlier Congress but have not yet been spent.

Included in the $9.4 billion rescission request is $1.1 billion to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) — the full amount advocated for a two-year period to the federally created corporation that disperses funds to public television and radio, including the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). 

Amodei, the co-chair of the Congressional Public Broadcasting Caucus, has long been a champion for public media — and its federal funding — as an important means of informing the West and people in rural areas. 

CPB helps fund entities including Nevada Public Radio, which operates seven stations across the state. Nevada Public Radio receives $450,000 annually from CPB — less than 10 percent of its annual revenue. Typically, the smaller a member station is — usually those in rural areas — the more reliant it is on federal government funding, meaning a cut would be more devastating.

The White House argued that the rescission is needed because public broadcasting has become biased against conservatives and does not need federal funding. 

But Amodei said the rescission would have real impact on stations in Nevada and across the West.

“I can sympathize with some people who are like, why should taxpayers dollars [go] for people to editorialize against us?” Amodei said in an interview Wednesday before the vote. “Where things change for me [is], when you talk about public broadcasting stations in Vegas and Reno, and the radio stations, they're sure as heck not leading my fan club — but I see them as a part of the media infrastructure, especially in rural areas.”

Amodei said that Nevada stations get 15 percent to 20 percent of their funding from CPB — but several stations in the West, which cover issues such as water, land use and mining that are relevant across the region, receive more than half of their funding from the federal government.

Amodei said that he may have been able to support a more narrow rescission that targeted editorial positions at national NPR, but that the bill as structured will disproportionately harm rural stations. And he noted that most of those rural radio and television stations that rely heavily on federal funding are in Republican-controlled areas of the country.

Ultimately, the rescissions package passed 214-212, after Republican leadership convinced two moderate Republicans to flip their votes to “yes.” Amodei was one of four Republicans — along with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and Mike Turner (R-OH) — to vote against the party.

Amodei has in the past expressed dissatisfaction with Republican-led legislation — most notably the cuts to clean energy tax credits in the budget reconciliation bill. But Thursday’s vote marks the first time this year that he voted against Trump’s stated preference.

Nevada’s three House Democrats all voted against the rescissions package. 

The legislation now moves to the Senate, where it needs a simple majority to pass. Congress has 45 days to pass a presidential rescission request, giving both chambers a July 18 deadline to enact the bill and reconcile any differences before the request expires.

In a statement after the vote, Amodei said he suspects the request will be amended and returned to the House.

“I’m sure we will be voting on this again before the cake is fully baked, so I look forward to working with my colleagues to improve and protect this infrastructure our rural communities rely on,” he said.