GOP, Dem Reps.: Don't Cut $1.1B for Public Broadcasting

The Republican and Democrat co-chairs of the Congressional Public Broadcasting Caucus are urging the Trump administration to reconsider cuts to public broadcasting included in a $9.4 billion rescission package that the House is set to vote on this week.

The legislation includes $1.1 billion in cuts to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting that were approved by Congress, $535 million in fiscal 2026 and 2027.

The CPB funds National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service, and local affiliates. The administration said in April that taxpayers "have been on the hook" for years funding NPR and PBS, which they said promoted "radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news.'"

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., and Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., released a joint statement Monday in which they oppose clawing back funding to rescind funding for the CPB. They said that cutting such funding would eliminate the only reliable media source for rural areas.

"Of the 544 radio and television stations that receive federal funding, 245 serve rural communities and collectively support more than 5,950 local jobs," Amodei and Goldman said in the statement posted on their X accounts. "Rural broadcasters face significant challenges in raising private funds, making them particularly vulnerable if government funding is cut."

The lawmakers acknowledged that "we reaffirm that public media must be objective and legitimate concerns about content should be addressed" but added that "funding decisions should be objective as well."

"Public broadcasting represents less than 0.01% of the federal budget, yet its impact reaches every congressional district," they said. "Cutting this funding will not meaningfully reduce the deficit, but it will dismantle a trusted source of information for millions of Americans."

On May 28 through Russell Vought, director of the Office and Management Budget, President Donald Trump sent to Congress a request to rescind the funds that were identified through the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.

The request also included $8.3 billion in funding cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Institute for Peace, and other international aid programs.

A simple majority of lawmakers in each GOP-controlled chamber of Congress can approve the rescission package within 45 days for it to become law. Republicans in both chambers have expressed concerns about the scope of the cuts.

"You go to rural America, public television is how you get emergency broadcasting and all that kind of stuff," Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said Thursday, according to The Hill. "I look at Idaho Public Television, they're a great organization, and we don't see the politics that some states do in them, or at least they believe they see that and stuff."

Simpson added that he still intends to support the package when it comes to the House floor.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told reporters last week that before he agrees to the rescission package, he needs to know what the cuts "would do to my Native American populations who use the AM radio, I think FM in some areas, to actually communicate throughout those rural areas."

"I tell folks we've got some stuff in public radio that for Native Americans who don't have anything else to communicate with out there for emergencies and so forth," he said, according to The Hill.