Some radio stations in Colorado might go under after the U.S. Senate passed a bill that cuts more than $1 billion in funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The nonprofit funds NPR, PBS and 1,500 radio and television stations across the country.

Colorado Public Radio says it would lose $1.4 million -- about 5% of its funding. It says there are a dozen small public radio stations in mountain and rural communities that could go off the air due to the cuts. Those stations not only provide local news and programming, but emergency alerts in cases of major storms, flooding and wildfires.

"If you're a hiker, if you're an outdoorsman, if you're a hunter, if you're a skier, or if you just live in a rural community and you rely on this infrastructure to keep yourself safe, all of this is at risk now," said Colorado Democrat Jason Crow, who opposed the bill.

Ashley Krest, the general Manager at KVNF in Paonia, says her station has 10,000 listeners across 10,000 square miles on the Western Slope. She says some of them live in areas where there is no internet service.

The radio station, she says, is a lifeline in emergencies like the South Rim Fire 

"So for them to be able to know that our at 90.9 or 89.1 is one that is going to deliver those special beeps that always come out and say, 'OK, we're now going to be evacuating off the south rim of the Black Canyon. These are the specific roads, and those are the folks that need to be paying attention and act now. Pack you go bag,'" Krest said. "I think that there's certain amount of trust that we've garnered from our listeners. We've been around for 46 years."

Krest says KVNF receives 20% of its funding from the CPB.

Gerald Rodriguez, general manager of KRZA in Alamosa, says his station receives nearly half of its funding from the organization. KRZA covers the entire San Luis Valley and Northern New Mexico. Rodriguez says the station not only provides emergency alerts for its own listeners but for two other radio stations.

Rodriguez says he maintains the transmitter -- located on San Antonio Mountain -- himself to save money.

"The terrain up there is pretty rough, especially in the winter time," Rodriguez said. "You can't get up there with an SUV, a snowmobile, anything. So I've had to literally hike up there three, four hours with a backpack in the cold snow in snowshoes to get up to the mountain and then fix our transmitter."

Rodriguez and Krest say they will look for grants and fundraise, but cuts are likely.

In addition to public broadcasting, the bill also cuts about $8 billion in foreign aid.

All of Colorado's Republican members of U.S. Congress voted for the measure.

"If NPR and PBS are as popular and important as they claim they are, they'll be able to run just fine without being subsidized by the federal government," Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert said in a statement shared with CBS Colorado. "This package is a good first step towards balancing our budget and cutting the wasteful spending from USAID that President Trump and I victoriously campaigned on eliminating."

The bill passed the House and Senate, but the Senate made changes to it, including preserving funding for tribal radio stations, so the House will need to repass it.