House Appropriations GOP Seen Renewing Push to End Advance CPB Funding in FY25

Public broadcasting advocates are bracing for House Republicans to again attempt ending advance funding for CPB as part of the FY 2025 appropriations process, but they’re hopeful the effort will fall short as it has in the past. The first salvo will likely happen Thursday, when the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) Subcommittee is set to mark up its FY25 bill. The subpanel unsuccessfully tried halting CPB's advance federal funding as part of the FY 2024 appropriations cycle (see 2307140069). Observers are monitoring whether Republicans will use recent claims of pro-Democratic Party bias at NPR (see 2405080064) as ammunition to move further on defunding that network or CPB.

CPB, NPR, PBS and America’s Public Television Stations didn’t comment.

House Appropriations LHHS Chairman Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., remained tight-lipped about his CPB plans ahead of the markup. “I support public broadcasting, so we're trying to protect as much as possible,” he told us earlier this month. “Our problem is we've got a limited budget,” but the debate is “not over yet.” He also led LHHS during the FY24 cycle, when the subpanel justified cutting the advance money because of budgetary issues. President Joe Biden in March proposed increasing CPB's annual funding to $595 million for FY 2027 (see 2403110056). Congress allocated CPB $535 million for FY 2026 as part of the FY24 minibus package (see 2403210067).

House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., also told us whether the panel allows advance CPB funding will depend on budget priorities. He repeatedly backed funding for the organization as lead LHHS Republican when former President Donald Trump tried to zero its allocation during his administration (see 1802210033). House Appropriations approved allocating LHHS more than $184.5 billion for FY25, which it said was a substantial cut from FY24. The House Republican Study Committee's FY25 budget proposal calls for eliminating federal CPB funding (see 2403210067).

Top Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations committees anticipate another GOP attempt to cut CPB's advance funding this year but don't think it will go far. “There's always an attempt to try and defund it, but we've overcome that pretty regularly,” said House Appropriations and LHHS ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. “I think we'll overcome it again” this year. “We're still at the beginning stages” of the FY25 process, so things won't be clearer until negotiations are “farther along,” said Senate Appropriations LHHS Subcommittee Chair Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

NPR Factor?

Aderholt said GOP concerns about NPR won't affect CPB's appropriations situation now, but he'd consider defunding the radio network if there aren't changes that tamp down its perceived bias. “I have met with” NPR officials about bias and “I'm hoping that will be something that can be addressed” before lawmakers feel compelled to intervene, Aderholt said. Several Republicans have filed bills that defund CPB and NPR during this Congress, including the No Propaganda Act (HR-8053). Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., filed the Defund NPR Act (HR-8286) after GOP scrutiny of bias claims intensified in April (see 2404190060).

The House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee's May hearing on NPR shows “there's more concern about public media” within the GOP caucus and “more awareness of it as a political third rail,” said American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Howard Husock, who testified in favor of making changes at the network. NPR's troubles could imperil CPB's funding because “many members don't distinguish between” them, Husock said.

Some lawmakers may view ending CPB's advance appropriations as a “symbolic change,” which would require the entity to “come up every year and be held accountable just like other agencies,” said Husock, a CPB board member during the Obama and Trump administrations. Congress provided advance funding for CPB in 1975 “to insulate it from politics” and editorial interference. “What's changed is” some lawmakers distinguish that from “not being held accountable for how you spend taxpayer money,” he told us.

Defunding CPB has been “a longtime priority for a lot of Republicans” and “we saw evidence of that play out” during the May House Commerce Oversight hearing, Free Press Vice President-Policy Matt Wood said. FP co-CEO Craig Aaron testified at that panel in favor of continued federal funding of public broadcasters. Wood cautioned that “not every Republican” backs funding cuts, noting that Cole “in the past has been a pretty good friend” to public broadcasting “and opposed those kinds of maneuvers.”

On its own, Republicans’ renewed scrutiny of NPR doesn’t represent a “huge shift,” Wood told us. “I think this is where a lot of them have been for a while.” It’s “notable” that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has tried "to make hay out of it as a piece of the culture wars,” Wood said: “They think they can use this as red meat to score political points with their base,” but “people have risen up against [defunding public broadcasting] time and time again.”