The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which allocates funds to NPR and PBS, said on Friday is has started an “orderly wind-down” of its operation, weeks after congressional Republicans voted in favor of President Trump’s plan to claw back $1.1 billion in taxpayer funding for public broadcasters.
“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a statement.
She added: “CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.”
The CPB on Friday also told employees that the majority of staffers will lose their jobs on Sept. 30, 2025. A “small transition team” will then remain in place through January 2026 to “ensure a responsible and orderly closeout of operations,” the corporation noted.
The CPB’s announced shutdown follows President Trump’s successful push to defund NPR and PBS, which has been a key focus of his since re-entering the White House earlier this year. In May, the president signed an executive order calling for the end of taxpayer subsidization of the two outlets, which 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 “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary, but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”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 public broadcaster funding over the next two years via a rescission request, which needed a simple majority in both the House and the Senate for approval. Congress approved that plan in mid-July, taking back $1.1 billion that had been earmarked for public broadcasters over the next two years.
Congress had previously 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.
The $1.1 billion in slashed funds was 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 have said the cuts would spell the end for a number of local news stations.
Edith Chapin, NPR’s editor-in-chief and CCO, announced she was stepping down a week after Congress voted on the president’s rescissions bill. Her exit came a few months after PBS chief Paula Kerger, during an interview with Katie Couric, said “there are stations that will go off the air” in rural areas if Congress approved the clawback.
On Friday, Harrison said public media has “been one of the most trusted institutions in American life” since the CPB was founded in 1967.
“We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership and unwavering dedication to serving the American people,” she added.
