The White House has taken steps to eliminate funding for National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service and the U.S. Agency for International Development by going to Congress.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought drafted a memo asking GOP lawmakers to slash the $1.1 billion set aside for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $8.3 billion for USAID.
“Since day one, the Trump Administration has targeted waste, fraud, and abuse in Federal spending through executive action, DOGE review, and other efforts by departments and agencies. Congress has expressed strong interest in supporting those efforts, and requested the Administration transmit rescissions to the Hill for swift approval,” Mr. Vought wrote in the memo, according to The New York Post.
“OMB recommends the Administration respond with two proposals to cut $9.3 billion. The first includes a rescission of $8.3 billion in wasteful foreign aid spending (out of $22 billion) that does not expire in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. The second is a separate rescission of all Federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) — which funds the politically biased public radio and public television system.”
The memo outlines the “lengthy history of anti-conservative bias” of the CPB and the negative comments NPR CEO Katherine Maher has made about President Trump.
“They spend more money than any other network of its type ever conceived, so the kind of money that’s being wasted, and it’s a very biased view. … And I’d be honored to see it end,” Mr. Trump said last month.
The White House put out a release Monday saying the “NPR, PBS grift has ripped us off for too long.”
The release cited examples of the “trash that passes for ‘news’” at NPR and PBS.
“As President Trump has stated, taxpayer funding of NPR’s and PBS’ biased content is a waste,” it said.
Leaders of PBS and NPR testified before the House Department of Government Efficiency subcommittee last month on federal support for public broadcasting networks.
The stations are funded by a $535 million appropriation by Congress through the CPB. The outlets and their local stations also receive donations.
“CPB allocates the appropriation mostly to public television and radio stations, with some assigned to NPR and PBS to support national programming,” PBS’ website says. “CPB funding to stations covers a portion of each’s annual operating budget (the percentage varies from station to station but as a general rule the percentage is smaller for larger market stations). Stations rely on generous donations from viewers like you, corporate sponsorships, and foundation grants to cover the rest of their operating budget.”
The conservative Heritage Foundation applauded the Trump administration’s proposal.
“At the House DOGE subcommittee hearing last month, NPR CEO Katherine Maher lied under oath and told members that NPR was not biased, along with other falsehoods that had to be corrected in real-time. NPR has lost the trust of conservatives and after decades of being lied to, we can no longer believe promises made by them that they will change. This day has been long in coming, but it has finally arrived,” Heritage President Kevin Roberts said in a statement.
Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, also praised the report, saying, “NPR and PBS have a right to publish their biased coverage — but they don’t have a right to spend taxpayer money on it.”
“It’s time to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” he wrote on X.
The Washington Times reached out to the White House for comment.
