Federal funding for PBS and NPR is about to be eliminated, in a move that will likely cause an existential cash crunch for many local broadcast stations.
PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger warned that the cuts will be felt across the country.
“These cuts will significantly impact all of our stations, but will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas,” Kerger said Thursday. “Many of our stations which provide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts will now be forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead.”
The future of the cuts were uncertain until a dramatic late night vote Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a 50-50 tie, the U.S. Senate moved forward on a rescission package that had been proposed by President Trump and passed (narrowly) in the House of Representatives last month. On Wednesday, the measure passed a final vote of 51-48. The Republican-controlled House approved the changes 216-213 on Thursday night giving final passage to the bill that will now head to Trump’s desk to become law.
The rescission package pulls about $1.1 billion in funding from PBS and NPR, which had been previously allocated over the next two fiscal years.
All that is left now is for President Trump to sign it, which he must do by Friday. Last week, Trump threatened to withhold endorsements for any Senator that voted no on the package, and he particularly called out the funding for public media as a reason why.
“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Rescissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,” Trump wrote. “Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement.”
Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski and Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky all voted against the package, forcing Vice President Vance to rush to the Senate floor to cast the tie-breaking vote.
Republicans have been pursuing an end to federal funding of PBS and NPR for decades, going back to President Nixon. No Republican, not Nixon, not Reagan, nor either Bush, was ever successful in eliminating all funding. That may be about to change, with local PBS and NPR stations likely to feel the brunt of the pain.
At issue is what conservatives see as the left-leaning politics of public media, while advocates for the stations note that the vast majority of programming is produced locally, serving audiences that may be underserved by commercial stations.