The Guardian

07/18/2025

Public broadcast station leaders are condemning Donald Trump’s latest victory after Congress approved a bill to cancel all federal funding for public broadcasting programs including PBS and NPR.

The House signed off on the bill early on Friday morning, after Wednesday’s key decision in the Senate to pass $9bn in spending cuts, slashing public broadcasting as well as foreign aid. The PBS president and CEO, Paula Kerger, said that the Senate’s approval of the package “goes against the will of the American people”.

“These cuts will significantly impact all of our stations, but will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas. Many of our stations which provide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts will now be forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” Kerger said.

“Despite today’s setback, we are determined to keep fighting to preserve the essential services we provide to the American public.”

Similarly, NPR’s CEO, Katherine Maher, said: “Nearly three in four Americans say they rely on their public radio stations for alerts and news for their public safety.

Kate Riley, the president and CEO of the advocacy group America’s Public Television Stations, said the organization was “devastated that the Senate voted to eliminate federal funding to the local public television stations throughout this country that provide essential lifesaving public safety services, proven educational services and community connections to their communities every day for free”.

The head of Native Public Media, Loris Taylor, called the Senate’s decision “deeply troubling”.

Taylor, who heads a network of 57 Native radio stations and four T stations, had privately implored the South Dakota Republican senator Mike Rounds to reject the package, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Following the Senate’s passage of the bill, which Rounds ultimately endorsed, Taylor said: “It poses an immediate threat to the survival of small, rural, and Tribal stations across the country. These hyperlocal stations, many of which are the only source of local news, emergency alerts, educational programming, and cultural preservation, operate with limited resources and rely on [the Corporation for Public Broadcasting] funding to stay on the air.