President Trump want Congress to cut $9 billion dollars and part of that comes from defunding PBS and NPR of federal funds. Most of this funding cut comes from funds made to USAID, which Trump wants Congress to claw back.
The rescission package doesn’t just request the cuts to PBS and NPR, but explains why these cuts must happen by pointing out the leftism of both publicly funded networks.
Here’s the reporting from The Hill:
The White House is preparing a rescission package that will seek to have Congress claw back more than $9 billion in approved funding through cuts to public broadcasting, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and agencies President Trump has sought to eliminate.
A White House official confirmed to The Hill that the package will be sent to Congress when lawmakers return from Easter recess on April 28. The package requests to eliminate $9.3 billion in spending, the official said.
That includes money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees PBS and NPR, money for USAID and agencies like the U.S. Institute of Peace, which Trump aimed to dismantle via an executive order signed in February.
The New York Post, which first reported on the planned request, noted the request covered roughly $1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and more than $8 billion for USAID and other State Department efforts.
The request cites various aspects of funding used by those organizations that do not align with the Trump administration’s priorities. It cites a PBS program from 2022 titled “Our League” about a transgender woman who comes out to members of their bowling league in Ohio.
The request also notes that NPR CEO Katherine Maher described Trump as a “fascist” in old social media posts. Maher has apologized for those remarks.
Representatives for NPR and PBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The rescission package also cites numerous examples of funding from the State Department and USAID to be cut that are not in line with Trump’s agenda. Among those are $500,000 for electric buses in Rwanda, $750,000 for reducing xenophobia in Venezuela, and $3 million for a children’s developmental television program in Iraq.
Simple majorities in both the House and Senate would need to vote to approve the rescission package in order to eliminate the congressionally approved funding. Republicans control both chambers, though their margin in the House is especially narrow.
It’s about time NPR and PBS get defunded of our taxpayer money. And USAID? Well, their defunding speaks for itself given what we’ve learned this year. Hopefully Congress does this and much more when it comes to funding cuts.