23 States File Amicus Brief in Support of NPR and PBS Funding

Twenty-three state attorneys general filed a joint amicus brief Monday supporting PBS and NPR lawsuits that challenge a White House executive order cutting public broadcasting funding. The brief -- from states including Colorado, Michigan, Arizona, New York and North Carolina -- argued that ending funding “would gravely harm Americans” by cutting access to emergency alerts and vital information. Rural areas and tribal communities “stand to suffer particular harms in the event public radio and television broadcasters discontinue or reduce the services they provide to those areas.” The White House’s order to cut funding usurps Congress’ authority, the filing added. “It is up to Congress, with its exclusive power of the purse, to decide whether and how to fund public media,” it said. “If the Executive Branch disagrees, the lawful course is to ask Congress to rescind appropriations, as it has now belatedly asked. But the Executive Branch’s actions challenged here, unilaterally terminating appropriations, are unlawful.”