The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a nonprofit that distributes federal funds to public radio and television stations in the United States, has announced it would be shutting down as the result of funding cuts under President Donald Trump.
On Friday, the group issued a statement saying it had launched an “orderly wind-down of its operations” in response to recent legislation that would cut nearly $1.1bn of its funding.
“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,” its president, Patricia Harrison, wrote.
According to the statement, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would remain in operation for the next six months, albeit with a reduced staff.
The majority of its employees will be let go on September 30. Then, a “small transition team” will remain through January 2026 to “ensure a responsible and orderly closeout”.
The death knell for the nonprofit came last month in the form of two legislative actions.
The first was the passage of the Rescission Act of 2025, which was designed to revoke funding that Congress approved in the past. The Rescission Act targeted federal programmes that Trump sought to put on the chopping block, including foreign aid and federal funding for public broadcasters.
The Senate voted to pass the act by a margin of 51 to 48, and the House then approved it by a vote of 216 to 213.
The second legislative wallop came on July 31, as the Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled its 2026 funding bill for labour, health and human services, education and related agencies.
That bill earmarked $197bn in discretionary funding, but none of it went to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Never in five decades had the corporation been excluded from the appropriations bill, according to the nonprofit.
Both houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans, and party members have largely fallen in line with Trump’s legislative priorities.
Defunding public media has long been a priority of Republicans, stretching back to President Richard Nixon’s feud in the 1970s with public broadcasting personalities like Sander Vanocur.
Nixon, like Trump, had an adversarial relationship with the media, and in 1972, he vetoed a public broadcasting funding bill, forcing Congress to return with a slimmed-down version of its funding. That move helped establish a trend of Republicans seeking to whittle down federal support for public, non-commercial TV and radio.
Trump, during his second term, has made it a priority to slash at what he considers government “bloat”, and that includes reducing federal spending.
He and his allies have accused news outlets like National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) of being left-wing soapboxes.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributes its funds to NPR and PBS member stations. NPR boasts a weekly audience of 43 million. PBS, meanwhile, reaches 130 million people each year through its television offerings alone, not counting its online presence.
Still, in the lead-up to the passage of the Rescissions Act, Trump threatened to yank his support from any Republican who opposed his efforts to defund the corporation.
Trump also said public broadcasting was worse than its commercial counterparts, including MSNBC, which he frequently misspells as “MSDNC” to imply alleged bias towards the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
“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,” Trump wrote on social media on July 10.
“Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
But Harrison, the president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, framed the organisation’s closure as a loss for education and civic engagement.
“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” Harrison said.
“We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.”
