Congress Axes NPR Cash — What Triggered It?

Photo: Piotr Swat / Shutterstock

Congress just pulled $1.1 billion in taxpayer funding from public broadcasting, and Senator Eric Schmitt says old NPR coverage proves why.

Quick Take

The Senate voted 51-48 to cancel $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, part of a larger $9 billion rescission package.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, said before the vote that PBS and NPR had become “megaphones for partisan left-wing activism.”
Schmitt pointed to NPR’s own coverage tied to Dr. Anthony Fauci and past censorship claims as proof of bias.
Schmitt also shared old tweets from NPR chief executive Katherine Maher after the vote to make his case.
The rescission bill now heads back to the House after Senate passage.

Senate Cuts Public Broadcasting Funding

The Senate passed a rescission bill early Thursday morning that cancels $1.1 billion previously approved for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The vote was 51-48, largely along party lines, as part of a broader $9 billion package that also cuts foreign aid spending. The bill now returns to the House for final approval before it can become law.

Before the vote, Sen. Eric Schmitt called out PBS and NPR directly. He said the two outlets had turned into “megaphones for partisan left-wing activism” and used that claim to justify stripping their federal money. His comments framed the funding cut as a response to years of what he called biased coverage, not just a budget decision.

Schmitt Points to Fauci Coverage as Evidence

Schmitt has a long history digging into claims about Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Biden administration’s handling of COVID-19 messaging. As Missouri’s attorney general, he led a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of working with social media companies to silence certain viewpoints, and he personally deposed Fauci as part of that case. He later testified to a House committee about alleged coverups tied to that investigation.

NPR itself has covered the Fauci story extensively, including reporting on diary entries Republican lawmakers say Fauci wrote between 2019 and 2022. Those entries surfaced during a Senate hearing where Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right rather than answer questions from Sen. Rand Paul. Schmitt has used NPR’s own coverage choices from that saga to argue the network downplayed accountability questions about Fauci.

Celebrating the Vote With Old Tweets

After the Senate vote passed, Schmitt posted a video celebrating the outcome. “We’re defunding NPR, finally,” he said, before reading old tweets from NPR chief executive Katherine Maher that he described as some of her “most deranged.” The move was meant to reinforce his argument that NPR’s leadership reflects a partisan slant unfit for taxpayer support.

Fox News reported the rescission bill targets what Republicans call “woke” spending on foreign aid and public broadcasting that Congress had approved in earlier budget cycles. Senate Republicans pushed the bill through despite Democratic opposition and some internal GOP hesitation about cutting local TV and radio stations that rely on federal support.

A Debate Over Bias and Public Trust

This fight fits a pattern seen for decades in Washington. Lawmakers accuse public broadcasters of bias, then use that claim to justify funding cuts, while defenders argue specific examples get stripped of context. The underlying tension is really about trust in institutions and who controls the cultural narrative, not just one disputed news segment.

For voters frustrated with government dysfunction on both sides, this episode shows how policy fights increasingly turn into media fights. Whether NPR’s coverage was truly biased remains a matter of political opinion, but the funding cut itself is now a real, documented outcome affecting more than 1,500 local public TV and radio stations nationwide.

The bill’s fate now rests with the House, which must approve the Senate’s version before the funding cuts take full effect. Local stations across the country are watching closely, since many rely on federal dollars for a meaningful share of their operating budgets.