The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved legislation Thursday to eliminate $1.1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasting, marking the closest NPR and PBS have ever come to losing all government support. The bill passed by a razor-thin margin of 214-212, with four Republicans joining all present Democrats in opposition.
The rescission package represents President Donald Trump’s first formal request to Congress to claw back previously approved spending, totaling $9.4 billion across multiple programs. The bulk of the cut, $8.3 billion, targets foreign aid programs managed by USAID, while the remaining $1.1 billion would eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had to personally intervene to secure passage, convincing Representatives Nick LaLota of New York and Don Bacon of Nebraska to switch their votes from “no” to “yes” as the measure appeared headed for defeat. Trump actively lobbied for the bill on his Truth Social platform just before the vote, calling NPR and PBS a “Radical Left Disaster” and urging Republicans to support the legislation.
Independent media analysis organizations provide some of the most systematic assessments of NPR and PBS bias. Ad Fontes Media, which uses panels of left-leaning, right-leaning, and center-leaning analysts, rates both organizations in the “Middle” category for bias. Specifically, NPR receives a bias score of -4.23 on a scale from -42 to +42, where negative scores indicate left-leaning bias. PBS receives a similar score of -3.95, also placing it in the minimal bias range.
However, PBS NewsHour, the network’s flagship news program, shows a more pronounced leftward lean with a bias score of -8.68. Both organizations receive high reliability scores above 43, indicating they are considered “Reliable, Analysis/Fact Reporting” sources.
The narrow passage revealed significant GOP divisions over defunding public media. Four Republicans, Mark Amodei of Nevada, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Nicole Malliotakis of New York, and Mike Turner of Ohio, ultimately voted against the package despite intense pressure from party leadership.
The bipartisan co-chairs of the House Public Broadcasting Caucus, Representatives Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), had urged the Trump administration to reconsider the cuts, emphasizing that “public broadcasting represents less than 0.01% of the federal budget, yet its impact reaches every congressional district”.
Public media advocates warn that rural areas will bear the brunt of the funding cuts. Of the more than 1,500 public radio and television stations funded by CPB, 245 radio stations are considered rural and serve as essential information sources for their communities. Many rural stations rely on federal funding for more than half their operating budgets.
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voiced strong opposition to the cuts, noting that Alaskan communities depend on public broadcasting for emergency alerts and disaster communications. “Not only would many Alaskan communities lose their local programming, but crucial systems for disasters, outages, water advisories, and alerts would be significantly compromised,” Murkowski stated.
The legislation now moves to the Republican-controlled Senate, where it faces an uncertain future despite the GOP’s 53-47 majority. The Senate must act by July 18, 2025, or the funding will be automatically released under federal law.
The vote represents the culmination of decades-long efforts by conservative activists to eliminate taxpayer funding for public media. Previous Republican presidents including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Trump during his first term all attempted to defund PBS and NPR but were blocked by Congress.
