The House of Representatives voted 214-212 on Thursday to cut $1.1 billion in funding that had previously been approved for public broadcasters like National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting System, throwing the futures of many of their affiliates into doubt.
Thursday’s vote was made largely along party lines, with House Republicans backing President Trump’s plan to claw back funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which allocates funds to NPR and PBS. Four House Republicans sided with 208 Democrats to reject the measure.
The $1.1 billion in slashed public broadcasting funds is part of $9.4 billion in total cuts approved by the House, with other agencies like U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) affected by the vote. Public broadcasting officials, leading up to Thursday, have said the cuts would spell the end for a number of local news stations. Six members, four Democrats and two Republicans missed the vote.
The House’s vote is a pivotal step in President Trump’s push to dismantle PBS and NPR.
Last month, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the end of taxpayer subsidization of PBS and NPR, two outlets he has called “radical left monsters” that have a bias against conservatives.
“Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse and innovative news options,” the order said. “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
The president then formally called on Congress to cancel $1.1 billion in funding over the next two years for public broadcasters via a rescission request earlier this month. A rescission needs a simple majority in both the House and the Senate for approval.
Congress had already allocated $535 million for public broadcasters this fiscal year, and PBS recently said it is it receiving $325 million in 2025 from the CPB, which accounts for 22% of its funding.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has championed the cuts and urged his fellow Republicans to vote in favor of slashing PBS and NPR’s funding.
“There is no reason for any media organization to be singled out to receive federal funds,” Johnson said last week. “Especially those who appear to have so little regard for the truth.”
On the other side of the aisle, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday blasted Republicans for the cuts, as well as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency for spearheading the push to claw back funds.
“House Republicans aren’t interested in functioning like a separate and co-equal branch of government and holding the Trump administration accountable for its extremism,” Jeffries said. “House Republicans will continue to behave like nothing more than a reckless Rubber Stamp for Donald Trump’s extreme agenda.”
NPR and PBS have both sued the Trump Administration in an attempt to thwart its plan to defund public broadcasters. The lawsuit filed by PBS argued the president’s executive order violates its First Amendment rights, while also claiming President Trump does not have the authority to make decisions over funding for public broadcasters.
President Trump, the lawsuit added, was engaging in “viewpoint discrimination” because he has claimed PBS is biased against him and other Republicans.
PBS chief Paula Kerger, in a recent interview with Katie Couric, said “there are stations that will go off the air” in rural areas if the president got what he wanted, without projecting a specific number of PBS member stations that would cease to operate.
“I think we’ll figure out a way, through digital, to make sure there is some PBS content,” Kerger said. “But there won’t be anyone in the community creating local content. There won’t be a place for people to come together.”
Following Thursday’s vote, the president’s rescission request will now move to the Senate.
