Before the Senate voted early Thursday morning to pass a rescissions package that includes major cuts to public broadcasting, National Public Radio President and CEO Katherine Maher warned, "defunding this is a real risk to the public safety of the country."

"Public media, public radio, public television, are a critical part of the emergency response plans of nearly half of the states in this nation," Maher said in an interview with CBS News. "If these types of emergency alerting go away, you will have fewer outlets to be able to respond in real time" to future natural disasters.

In June, the White House asked Congress to cancel $9.4 billion in appropriations that had previously been approved. The request, known as the rescissions package , passed in the House in mid-June and

See Full Page