Trump Asks Congress to Defund PBS and NPR

The Washington Post

14:31 JST, June 4, 2025

CPB received $525 million in federal funding in 2024 and $535 million in 2025. But under the new plan, if passed into law, it would see its federal budget completely slashed for 2026 and 2027.

A spokesperson from the White House Office of Management and Budget told The Washington Post that it is requesting to rescind about $1.1 billion in funding, and in a post on X called the organization “left wing.” “Federal spending on CPB subsidizes a public media system that is politically biased and is an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer,” OMB Director Russell Vought wrote in a letter to the president, which was included in the formal rescission request.

The proposed cuts to CPB’s budget are part of a larger $9.4 billion rescission package that otherwise largely targets foreign aid through the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In a budget appendix released Friday for fiscal 2026, the White House proposed cutting all but $30 million in federal funding to CPB, “to conduct an orderly closeout of Federal funding for the Corporation.”

CPB is an independent nonprofit established by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 that steers congressional allocations to public media entities like PBS and NPR, and their member stations.

But President Donald Trump has sought to end taxpayer support for what he considers “biased” media. In April, he first confirmed his intent to request formal rescission from Congress before attempting to unilaterally defund CPB through a May 1 executive order.

On May 27, NPR sued the government in U.S. District Court in Washington, alleging that the executive order violates its First Amendment rights. PBS followed with a similar lawsuit against the government Friday.

Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, wrote in a statement that the rescissions would “have a devastating impact” on PBS member stations, meaning Americans will lose important local coverage.

“There’s nothing more American than PBS and we are proud to highlight real issues, individuals, and places that would otherwise be overlooked by commercial media,” Kerger wrote. “Public media is a public-private partnership and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress.

“During this fight we will demonstrate our value to Congress, as we have over the last 50 years, in providing educational, enriching programs and critical services to all Americans every day free.”

Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, wrote that the organization cannot take criticism seriously and work to improve if its funding is completely cut. “Federal funding for the public broadcasting system is irreplaceable,” Harrison wrote. “Public media serves all – families and individuals, in rural and urban communities – free of charge and commercial free. American taxpayers rely upon and trust public media for high quality educational content, information, and lifesaving alerts.”

NPR CEO Katherine Maher wrote that this bill would hurt Americans. “This rescission would have a negligible impact on reducing the deficit and provide little-to-no savings for taxpayers, yet it would harm all Americans, shutting off access to local news, national reporting, music and regional culture, and emergency alerting,” Maher wrote in a statement.

Trump has also taken aim at individual CPB officials. Three of CPB’s five board members received letters of termination from a White House official on April 28. The next day, CPB and the board members in question sued the government, saying the president – who nominates board members, who are then confirmed by the Senate – does not have the power to unilaterally remove them.

The ordeal has been just one prong of a multifaceted war on the media initiated by the Trump administration. The administration has feuded in court with the Associated Press over access to covering White House events, and the president personally sued CBS over an interview with rival Kamala Harris and has since encouraged the FCC to investigate the network. The administration is also in the process of dismantling Voice of America and government-funded nonprofit media networks.

Federal funding to PBS and NPR makes up about 15 percent and 1 percent of their respective budgets. Those numbers are higher for PBS and NPR member stations: 18 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

More Americans support federal funding to public media than oppose it, the Pew Research Center found in a survey published in March. About 43 percent of U.S. adults said that PBS and NPR should continue receiving taxpayer dollars while 24 percent disagreed and another 33 percent weren’t sure. But the issue was much more popular among Democrats, with 69 percent support, as opposed to Republican respondents – only 19 percent thought funding these media outlets was a good idea.