House Passes Public Media Funding Cuts

Early Friday morning, the House of Representatives, led by Republicans, passed a $9 billion spending cut bill by a 216-213 vote, slashing $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eliminating two years of federal funding for NPR and PBS. 

The bill, already approved by the Senate 51-48 on Wednesday, now awaits the president’s signature.NPR’s CEO, Katherine Maher, condemned the cuts as an “unwarranted dismantling” of cherished local institutions, citing strong public support for public media, with two-thirds of Americans viewing it as a valuable use of taxpayer funds. 

She emphasized the daily reliance of Americans on NPR and PBS for news, education, and cultural programming.

The spending package, requested by the White House, also cuts $8 billion from foreign aid, including global health and refugee programs, though the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was spared a $400 million reduction to secure Republican Senate votes. Two House Republicans, Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) and Michael Turner (OH), and two Senate Republicans, Susan Collins (ME) and Lisa Murkowski (AK), opposed the bill, while Democrats in both chambers voted unanimously against it.

The White House has previously criticized public media as biased, attempting to remove board members, including Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman. The $1.1 billion cut eliminates the full two-year allocation to the CPB, which supports over 1,500 public TV and radio stations, NPR, and PBS.

While NPR and PBS are expected to survive due to limited reliance on federal funds, the cuts will likely force local stations to reduce programming and staff as early as this fall, with some stations losing up to half their budgets.

The funding cuts threaten to destabilize the public media system. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has secured station funding through September, but after that, over 100 TV and radio stations serving millions in rural areas face closure, according to Public Media Company, an advisory firm.

Tim Isgitt, the firm’s CEO, warned that the impact could be profound. The sharp funding reduction will shrink the pool of stations able to purchase programming or raise donations, risking a “doom loop” with devastating effects across the system. “Failing stations will trigger a cascade, disrupting content producers and potentially collapsing other vulnerable stations nationwide,” Isgitt said.

Public Media Company’s analysis flagged 78 public radio and 37 public TV organizations at risk of shutting down, with some operating multiple stations that serve large populations. These stations depend on CPB grants and federal funding for at least 30% of their budgets, and many provide critical local news access in underserved counties.