Public media was in the spotlight this summer when an Executive Order prompted the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (“CPB”) Board of Directors to terminate federal funding for the Public Broadcasting Service (“PBS”) and National Public Radio (“NPR”), outlets recognized nationwide for providing news and other programming to millions of individuals across the country. These efforts ultimately culminated in the Rescissions Act of 2025 (“Rescissions Act”), which was signed into law in July and marked the first time in nearly sixty years that Congress refused to fund the CPB.[i]
The CPB was founded under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.[ii] Citing to public interest, Congress intended for the CPB to encourage the development and growth of public radio and television broadcasting and encourage the use of media for cultural, educational, and instructional purposes.[iii] The CPB’s mission was to ultimately “ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services.”[iv]
The CPB created the Public Broadcasting System, widely known as PBS, in 1969.[v] PBS was tasked with managing and operating a program distribution system that would connect public television stations nationwide.[vi] These stations would also receive a distribution channel for national programs they could air. While PBS did not produce programs for member stations, it was still responsible for collecting funding that would be used for the acquisition and creation of programs by and for these stations. Afterwards, PBS would use its satellite distribution system to transmit these programs to nearly 350 local public television stations.[vii]
In 1970, the CPB created National Public Radio, also known as NPR.[viii] Designed as a “news-gathering, production, and program-distribution company,” NPR is authorized to produce radio programs, such as All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Like PBS, NPR provides radio programming through a satellite distribution system to over 1,000 member and affiliate stations.[ix] While NPR reports events on a national scale, its member and affiliate stations primarily dedicate themselves to providing local programs and journalism.
Considering this public media history, the Rescission Act is a rare and drastic measure to pass, and its implications will be widespread. Congress’s purported reasoning for taking such a measure was rooted in addressing and combating perceived bias in public media.[x] However, as a result of the act, Congress has now cancelled the $1.1 billion that had been appropriated for the CPB through fiscal year 2027.[xi] While national programming like NewsHours on PBS and PBS Kids shows will still air, the loss of funding casts doubt as to whether local stations will have the financial stability to continue carrying these shows and national programming as a whole. Larger PBS stations, such as those found in metropolitan areas like Miami, will be more insulated against these imminent deficits in funding partly because these stations receive revenue from other sources, such as local governments, foundations, and universities, as well as donations from viewers like you.[xii] However, smaller stations, like those in remote, rural areas, will face greater hardships due to their reliance on federal funding.[xiii] States like Alaska are estimated to lose $12 million in funding for their public stations, which will result in a loss of anywhere between 30 and 70 percent of each station’s budget.[xiv] Meanwhile, the absence of funding in Maine means less support for their emergency alert network.[xv]
Stations may also face legal implications in the future due to these budget cuts. The CPB assisted in helping these stations remain in legal compliance with the Federal Communications Commission while also negotiating system-wide rights, which included royalties for content use and music.[xvi] The CPB would also grant funds to assist PBS and NPR with paying license fees for programming. Perhaps most importantly, the hardest impact the Rescissions Act will have is that it will prevent the CPB from doing what it was statutorily designed to do: to “further[] the general welfare to encourage public telecommunications services which will be responsive to the interests of people both in particular localities and throughout the United States. . . .”[xvii] Without federal funding, the CPB cannot address “the needs of unserved and underserved audiences,” namely children and minorities, nor can it continue to develop and expand public telecommunications at local or national levels.[xviii]
In August, the CPB announced its shut down and initiated the winding down of its operations.[xix] Any hope of seeing funds restored for the following budget year was dismissed by the Senate Appropriations Committee.[xx] Since then, PBS has seen a 21% reduction in revenue, and the decline is projected to continue once all federal funding is eliminated beginning on October 1.[xxi] As it stands, without the CPB operating as the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting and the elimination of federal funding, the centralized structure established by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 is virtually obsolete. Impacted local radio and news stations will have no choice but to find alternate means of support to remain on air.
[i] See Rescissions Act of 2025, Pub. L. No. 119-28, H.R. 4, 119th Cong.
[ii] See About CPB, CPB, https://cpb.org/aboutcpb [https://perma.cc/KZR7-V9NP] (last visited Sep. 29, 2025).
[iii] See 47 U.S.C. § 396(a)(1).
[iv] CPB, supra note ii.
[v] See Brian E. Humphreys, Cong. Rsch. Serv., R48545, Public Broadcasting: Background Information and Issues for Congress 12 (2025).
[vi] See id.
[vii] See id.
[viii] See id.
[ix] See Scott Neuman & Frank Langfitt, Corporation for Public Broadcasting Says It’s Shutting Down, NPR (Aug. 1, 2025, at 6:24 PM ET), https://www.npr.org/2025/08/01/nx-s1-5489808/cpb-shut-down-public-broadcasting-trump [https://perma.cc/S95B-UCYF].
[x] See CPB Says it is Shutting Down After Being Defunded by Congress, Targeted by Trump, PBS (Aug. 1, 2025, at 3:46 PM ET), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/cpb-says-it-is-shutting-down-after-being-defunded-by-congress-targeted-by-trump [https://perma.cc/29C9-7VAB] (“Trump, who has called the CPB a ‘monstrosity,’ has long said that public broadcasting displays an extreme liberal bias, helped create the momentum in recent months for an anti-public broadcasting groundswell among his supporters in Congress and around the country.”).
[xi] See Nik Popli, What the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Shutting Down Means for PBS and NPR, Time (Aug. 1, 2025, at 4:09 PM ET), https://time.com/7307069/corporation-for-public-broadcasting-pbs-npr [https://perma.cc/E946-FT58].
[xii] See Brian Stelter, What Will Happen to PBS and NPR Stations Once They Lose Federal Funding?, CNN Bus. (Jul. 18, 2025, at 1:42 AM ET).
[xiii] See id.
[xiv] See Popli, supra note xi.
[xv] See id.
[xvi] See id.
[xvii] See 47 U.S.C. § 396(a)(2).
[xviii] See 47 U.S.C. § 396(a)(6).
[xix]See Neuman & Langfitt, supra note ix.
[xx] See Press Release, Corp. for Pub. Broad., Corporation for Public Broadcasting Addresses Operations Following Loss of Federal Funding (Aug. 1, 2025) (on file with author) (explaining how the CPB would begin shutting down following “the release of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) appropriations bill, which excludes funding for CPB for the first time in more than five decades.”).
[xxi] See David Folkenflik, PBS Cuts 15% of Jobs in Wake of Federal Funding Cut, NPR (Sep. 5, 2025, at 12:23 AM ET), https://www.npr.org/2025/09/04/nx-s1-5529431/pbs-cuts-15-of-jobs-in-wake-of-federal-funding-cut [https://perma.cc/2U2F-3GE8].
