Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which funds PBS, NPR — to close after federal aid cut

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting – which funds NPR and PBS — will shut down after the loss of federal funding, the nonprofit said on Friday

The decision comes weeks after the GOP-led House of Representatives approved $9 billion in cuts to public media and foreign aid – siding with President Trump’s longtime calls to defund outlets he has accused of having a left-wing bias.

Those cuts included $1.1 billion set aside for the CPB over the next two years.

The House passed a $9 billion funding cut to public media and foreign aid last month, including the elimination of $1.1 billion earmarked for the CPB, which distributes funding to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. AFP via Getty Images

Public media officials had hoped that lawmakers would vote to restore some of that money down the line, but the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday declined to do so.

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, said Friday.

The majority of the CPB’s roughly 100 staffers will be let go by the end of September, the organization said.

A small transition team will remain through January 2026 “to focus on compliance, fiscal distributions, and resolution of long-term financial obligations including ensuring continuity for music rights and royalties that remain essential to the public media system,” the CPB said in a statement.

CPB, created by Congress in 1967, has distributed more than $500 million each year to PBS, NPR and more than 1,500 locally-operated public radio and TV stations.

President Trump argues that financing public broadcasting is an unnecessary expense and that its news coverage suffers from an anti-right bias. Getty Images

NPR has said it receives about 1% of its funds from federal sources annually, and about 3% indirectly from stations. PBS — which features programming like “Sesame Street” — reportedly receives 16% of its funding from the federal government.

Trump, who blasted NPR and PBS funding as a waste of federal dollars, cheered the cuts last month following the congressional vote.

“House approves nine billion dollar cuts package, including atrocious NPR and public broadcasting, where billions of dollars a year were wasted,” Trump wrote in all capital letters in a July post on Truth Social.

Since 1967, CPB has distributed more than $500 million annually to the PBS, NPR and more than 1,500 locally operated public radio and television stations. Rafael Henrique – stock.adobe.com

“Republicans have tried doing this for 40 years, and failed….but no more. This is big!!!”

The Trump administration has also filed a lawsuit against three CPB board members who have refused to abandon their posts despite Trump’s orders for them to be fired.

With Post wires