The Senate voted narrowly early Thursday morning to strip $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in a severe blow to 1,500 local public TV and radio stations as well as PBS and NPR.
Before the vote, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, said that PBS and NPR had become “megaphones for partisan left-wing activism,” and that Republicans were seeking to stop wasteful spending.
The 51-to-48 vote caps a multi-decade push to defund public media by conservatives who argue that its programming is out of step with the national political environment. At a hearing in March, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene cited the appearance of a drag queen on “Let’s Learn,” a YouTube series produced by the WNET Group in New York.
Drawing on a 2024 Free Press article from former NPR editor Uri Berliner, Republicans also faulted NPR’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story and the COVID lab leak theory. They also objected to a documentary, “Racist Trees,” that aired on PBS.
“American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize programming that glorifies radical gender ideology in schools or pushes to defund the police,” Schmitt said Wednesday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, argued that the Trump administration is seeking to shut down public broadcasting because it represents an independent voice.
“Trump, like all authoritarians, doesn’t like criticism or objective reporting,” Sanders said on social media. “He just wants to be flattered. That’s why he wants to defund NPR and PBS.”
The vote slashes $535 million annually for a two-year period starting in October. The cuts are expected to fall hardest on local stations in rural areas, where CPB funding can make up a large share of total revenue.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, said that the funding cuts would devastate rural stations in his state. Democrats warned that the cuts will threaten kids programming like “Sesame Street” and “Daniel Tiger” that would not be viable on commercial television.
“For many families, public television is one of their only early childhood education tools,” Gallego said.
The vote will impact the national public broadcasters, who receive a small share of funding directly from CPB and a larger share in the form of programming fees from affiliates. About 30% of NPR’s revenue comes from local stations.
NPR warned that the cuts would likely shutter local newsrooms around the country, while PBS said that the vote would have a “devastating impact” on the network and its affiliate stations.
“Without PBS and local member stations, Americans will lose unique local programming and emergency services in times of crisis,” a PBS spokesperson said.
The House voted in June to claw back the funding, on a vote of 214-212. The Senate passed a procedural vote on the rescission on Tuesday night, with Vice President J.D. Vance breaking a 50-50 tie. Three Republican senators — Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell — joined 47 Democrats and independents in voting no.
The House has until Friday to concur on the vote.
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