House Again Approves CPB Funding Rescission; Advocates Predict Dire Consequences

Trump praised lawmakers on Truth Social for retaining HR-4’s language to defund “ATROCIOUS NPR AND PUBLIC BROADCASTING, WHERE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS A YEAR WERE WASTED. REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED….BUT NO MORE. THIS IS BIG!!!” He's expected to quickly sign the measure. The administration asked Congress in June to rescind the CPB funding (see 2506030065).

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said Trump and congressional Republicans “are recklessly taking a sledgehammer to an important American institution in a way that will make their own constituents less safe and less informed.” Once federal funding for CPB ends Oct. 1, many stations “will disappear,” Pallone said. “Republicans know the pain it will cause back home when the only local radio station in town shutters its doors. ... But they don’t care, because blindly following President Trump’s whims is a bigger priority than serving the people they represent.” Pallone added that he will do "everything I can to restore this funding.”

House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., also vowed to “keep fighting against [Trump’s] deliberate and dangerous assault on our free press,” including by working to restore CPB funding. “Republicans are jeopardizing Americans’ ability to access free, community-supported access to news, educational programming, and lifesaving emergency alerts,” she said in a statement. “Stations, especially those serving our most rural and remote communities, will be forced to cut back on programming, lay off staff, and even go off air.”

'Hard Decisions'

NPR CEO Katherine Maher said those who support the defunding “are fixated on NPR and PBS, but in reality the cuts will be felt where these services are needed most. Stations in places like West Virginia, and those serving tribal nations, receive more than 50% of their budget from federal funding.”

“Despite promises from some Members of Congress to fix anything the bill breaks, this will be an irreversible loss,” Maher said. “If a station doesn’t survive this sudden turn by Congress, a vital stitch in our American fabric will be gone for good.”

PBS CEO Paula Kerger said the “cuts will significantly impact all of our stations, but will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas. 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.” PBS is “determined to keep fighting to preserve the essential services we provide to the American public,” she said. CPB and America’s Public Television Stations, which last week also raised concerns about the rescission (see 2507160077), added their criticisms of the House’s action.

Meanwhile, Free Press Foundation President Randolph May pushed back against Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez’s statement Thursday that the Trump administration is engaged in “a coordinated campaign to silence public media" and calling the funding clawback "the latest attempt by this Administration to censor and control speech.” May said Gomez’s “condemnation perhaps would be more worthy of consideration if she had given even a mere nod in the direction of acknowledging the pronounced left-leaning bias in public broadcasting's programming, especially that of NPR.”

“It is not an attack on free speech for Congress and the president to decide that taxpayers should not be required to fund speech claimed to be politically biased,” May said. “On the other hand, there may be … threats to free speech protected by the First Amendment if the government, whether the Trump administration or any other, threatens private media outlets with adverse consequences based on the content of their programming.”