The House of Representatives put the future of the public broadcasting ecosystem in doubt, as they voted to rescind $1.1 billion in federal funding for the next two fiscal years.
The vote was 214-212. The bill, which also includes cuts to foreign aid, now heads to the Senate.
The bill claws back $535 million in funding for fiscal year 2026 and $535 million in funding for fiscal year 2027. Congress had already allocated the money to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the non profit entity set up to distribute funds to PBS, NPR and stations.
President Donald Trump has sought to eliminate federal funding to PBS and NPR via executive order, but the White House, deeming the networks biased to the left, sent a package of rescissions last week to roll back funding to CPB. With congressional approval, that would put the cuts on a sounder legal footing than an executive order.
Public broadcasting has found itself in the crosshairs many times before, as the elimination of funding has been a long-held desire from the right. The House voted to cut NPR funding in 2011. Mitt Romney argued for eliminating funding during his 2012 presidential campaign. The Trump administration proposed zeroing out public broadcasting funding for each of the four years of his first term.
But with lobbying from parents, viewers and such characters as Big Bird, public media has survived amid bipartisan support from lawmakers who have cited their support for public media outlets in their own communities.
That is why the leaders of CPB, NPR and PBS have been emphasizing the impact of the cuts on local stations, which get the lion’s share of the federal funds.
But those arguments may be unable to overcome a long-held desire on the right to eliminate the funding. That has been exacerbated by the attacks from the right on the signature piece of Trump’s legislation, a tax and spending package that figures like Elon Musk have argued would bankrupt the federal government. That seems to have put pressure on GOP lawmakers to show examples of their fiscal restraint, even as Democrats have attacked them for the package of rescissions cuts.
During debate on the House floor, Republicans cited instances that they say proved public media bias. But the action also reflected Trump’s latest effort to undermine media outlets he does not like. His FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, has launched investigations of Comcast and Disney, among others, over their DEI practices.
Some GOP lawmakers, though, said that the situation with public broadcasting was different, framing it as a matter of using tax dollars to back media outlets they say promote a left-wing agenda.
“They have a right to say what they want; they do not have a right to our tax dollars,” said Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX).
Democrats defended public media, but in the House debate, put the greatest emphasis on the impact of rescissions to global health programs and AIDS prevention.
Public media advocates, though, say that detractors have cherry picked instances when overall, trust in NPR and PBS remains high. A Pew survey in March put PBS high on the list of trusted news sources, along with the BBC. NPR also scored well, ranking with The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press.
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