OMB: Trump's $1.1B Rescind Request in Advance CPB Funding Coming Next Week
A White House OMB spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that President Donald Trump will send Congress a promised $9.4 billion rescissions package next week, seeking to claw back about $1.1 billion in advance CPB funding (see 2504150052). Since January, congressional Republicans have shown growing interest in ending federal funding for public broadcasters amid rancor over what they say is pro-Democratic bias in news coverage (see 2502030064). NPR sued the Trump administration Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block a White House executive order cutting funding for NPR and PBS (see 2505270047).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday that the chamber will “act quickly” to pass the rescissions package once lawmakers return next week from recess. The House “is eager and ready to act on" the Department of Government Efficiency advisory group’s findings, "so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand,” Johnson said. DOGE has long eyed CPB as a potential target (see 2411220042). The package reportedly targets $535 million in advance annual funding for CPB in fiscal years 2026 and 2027.
Lobbyists told us it’s still uncertain whether clawing back the CPB funding will get full GOP support in both chambers. In part, the lobbyists cited questions voiced earlier this month by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., chair of the Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee (see 2505020044). However, public broadcasting advocates remain concerned that Trump's plan could succeed because the Senate might bypass its normal 60-vote cloture threshold to approve rescission requests. A simple majority vote in the chamber, which has a 53-47 Republican advantage, could approve a rescission package and bypass Democrats’ objections.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Wednesday during a podcast that “we’re going to have a battle in Congress” to defund CPB, particularly if lawmakers pursue it “through regular order,” because that would require clearing the upper chamber’s cloture threshold. “Zero Democrats will vote to defund NPR or PBS, which means, if it goes through regular order, it will not happen.”
House Oversight Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee member Brandon Gill, R-Texas, said during a Fox News appearance Tuesday night that Congress will “follow up” a rescission of the advance CPB funding by enacting appropriations “bills that permanently pull” back future money. “This is something that Republicans have been talking about for decades, and [Trump] is finally doing it,” Gill said. Subpanel member Michael Cloud, R-Texas, said Tuesday night that “tax dollars aren’t meant to push activism. They’re meant to serve the American people." The two lawmakers were among House DOGE members who lambasted NPR and PBS executives during a March hearing focused on the content bias claims (see 2503260063).
Meanwhile, House DOGE member Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, pushed back against Trump’s NPR-PBS defunding order as “political retaliation.” Trump is “trying to silence public media because they don’t bow down to his ego,” she said. “News flash: the First Amendment doesn’t disappear just because you don’t like the coverage, Donnie.”