The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is set to close its operations, its president, Patricia Harrison, announced. Despite “extraordinary efforts” by millions of Americans who contacted Congress to preserve its funding, the organization now faces the “difficult reality” of its demise. According to the statement, CPB will continue to operate with a reduced staff for the next six months, with most employees being laid off on September 30. A “small transition team” will remain until January 2026 to ensure an “orderly and responsible closeout.”
This non-profit organization’s closure was triggered by two key legislative actions last month. First was the passage of the Rescission Act of 2025, which revoked previously approved federal funding. This act targeted various federal programs, including those for public broadcasters. The Senate approved the act 51-48, and the House passed it 216-213. The second blow came on July 31, when the Senate Appropriations Committee’s 2026 funding bill, which allocated $197 billion in discretionary funds, did not include any funding for the CPB. The nonprofit noted that this was the first time in five decades that it had been excluded from an appropriations bill.
Both chambers of Congress are currently controlled by Republicans, who have largely aligned with President Trump’s legislative priorities. The defunding of public media has been a long-standing goal for the Republican party, a push that dates back to President Richard Nixon’s conflicts with public broadcasting in the 1970s. Nixon, like Trump, had an adversarial relationship with the media and vetoed a public broadcasting funding bill in 1972, a move that set a precedent for Republicans to seek reductions in federal support for non-commercial television and radio.
During his second term, Trump has prioritized slashing what he calls government “bloat” and has accused outlets like NPR and PBS, which are funded by the CPB, of being left-wing platforms. Before the passage of the Rescissions Act, Trump publicly threatened to withdraw his support from any Republican who opposed his efforts to defund the corporation. He claimed public broadcasting was “worse than CNN & MSDNC put together.”
In her statement, CPB President Harrison framed the organization’s closure as a significant loss for education and civic life in America. She highlighted that 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.”
