The Senate voted early Thursday morning to revoke $1.1 billion in public media spending at President Donald Trump’s behest, rescinding federal funding for PBS and NPR in the process. The measure, which is part of a $9 billion rescissions package, passed 51-49 with Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voting against alongside all Democrats.
The bill now moves to the House of Representatives which may vote as early as Thursday. Congress has a deadline of Friday to pass the bill, which is part of Trump’s push to revoke the relatively tiny federal funding for PBS and NPR, which he and other Republicans claim are part of the liberal media despite abundant evidence to the contrary.
As plenty of experts have warned, the revocation of federal funding for these public media stations won’t actually shut PBS or NPR down but will disproportionately harm rural and low-income communities, shuttering local stations on which citizens rely for vital — and free — information.
As of 2025, 35% of adults who watch PBS reported that they’re aligned with the Democratic Party, 26% say they’re aligned with the Republican Party and 37% say that they are Independents. PBS viewers also don’t typically fit the mold of the urban-dwelling liberal elites. About 60% of PBS’ audience lives outside of urban areas and 55% of them live in rural homes. Additionally, 56% of PBS’ audience comes from low-income homes.
Last week, Trump threatened Republican lawmakers that if they didn’t vote to pass his recissions package, they’d lose his endorsement.
“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,” the president wrote. “Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement.”
Still, plenty of Republican senators were hesitant to pass the package and needed cajoling to win them over. Promises were made by the administration that specific programs important to these senators would not lose their funding, but still some who voted to approve the measure were hesitant that Trump would keep his word.
“If we find out that some of these programs that we’ve communicated should be out of bounds — that advisers to the president decide they are going to cut anyway,” Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina told the New York Times, “then there will be a reckoning for that.”
