Is Alcatraz reopening? Rory O'Neill has the latest

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Royann Neil joins US now as the president, looking to
make Alcatraz great again, or at least better than it was.
The rock is now being considered for a reopening. I've
heard Roy that this is a pricey venture here. Good morning, Yeah,
good morning JT.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Several hundred million dollars believed to be needed in order
to make the necessary upgrades. You know, they closed Alcatraz
in nineteen sixty three because it was too expensive. The
facility then needed multimillion dollar repairs, and they ran the
numbers and said, you know, keeping an inmate in Alcatraz
costs US three times what it costs to keep them

(00:38):
locked up in other facilities. So they made the decision
to shut it down. Nineteen seventy two, it was made
part of the National Parks and has become a popular
tourist attraction ever since. So the mayor, of course doesn't
want this change. He said, look, it's a big tourist
to draw for us. Don't shut it down. But Attorney
General Bondi the Interior Secretary Bergham were both Tory yesterday.

(01:01):
There's some laws that would have to be changed if
you want to make the switch. But again, finding the
money it could be the real challenge.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Laws to be changed. What do you mean by that?
What do they have to do to change laws? Why
would they have to change.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Laws because now it's part of the National parkserce.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Oh okay, I got you.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I got you. Well with the Presidio and the Golden Gate.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Okay, let's let's talk about this. I mean, I know
our jails and prisons are overcrowded, but is why would
they open this just to do it?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
And Relief says that, yeah. President Trump says essentially that
there's some there's some meat on the bone if you
can send people to the most feared prison in America. Right, So,
I think that he thinks that there is a pr
component to this that may be worth it. Again, I
don't think they've seen actual numbers of what could cost.

(01:47):
I'm sure there's been speculator that we've said two to
three hundred million dollars. But you know that's just to
get it up and running. And of course, you know
what government contract comes in under budget, and then the
cost of running it, you know, being in an isolated facility,
got to vote everything in it would be a real
expensive venture.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well, let's talk about money. And where it may come from.
Perhaps now as the President is getting ready to sign
all the clawback money you've pushed that the Congress is
put on his desk, what will be affected by that
and maybe they can use some of that for Alcatraz.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, yeah, it could be. It's about nine billion dollars,
and the President and the administration are saying more of
these recision bills are coming. Now, this was money that
was approved by Congress, This went through the whole process,
it went it was even signed into law. But the
President Trump wants to claw it back. And this is
nine billion dollars in this wave. As I said, the

(02:45):
administration wants to do this again. But about eight billion
of it is in four and eight one point one
billion is money that would have gone to the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting that supports NPR and PBS and the
individual stations that they have all across the country. So
this may be the first of many bills. But this
is a rare thing. I think this was the first

(03:06):
time in over thirty years that Congress has passed one
of these clawback laws.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, one of the biggest chunks of change in this
whole thing is the Foreign EID and the NATO eight
and things like that. I know there's a lot of
domestic cutbacks as well, but the Foreign eight that we're.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Doing, it's mostly Foreign eight, USAID and programs like that,
money that we give to the United Nations through UNICF,
that kind of money is being stopped and pulled back.
But yeah, it's about twenty five different different line items
make up this nine billion dollars.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, that's a chunk of change for sure, but like
you said, just the beginning of all the big cuts coming.
Thank you, Roy, appreciate you having a good weekend.