The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced Friday that it would close at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, after President Donald Trump last month signed legislation canceling their funding for the next two years.
The move comes the day after the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2026 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill that did not include funding for public broadcasting, which the organization referenced in its press release announcing its closure.
“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,” the organization’s president and CEO, Patricia Harrison, said in a statement.
The rescissions law that congressional Republicans passed last month stripped $1.1 billion in funding from the CPB, which helps finance National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service and local stations, for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. It also pulled back $7.9 billion in foreign aid.
The CPB gets its funding two years in advance, so the money had been appropriated in spending bills enacted in fiscal 2024 and earlier this fiscal year.
Public broadcasting supporters, including Democratic appropriators, were hoping to get that funding restored in the fiscal 2026 spending cycle, and were critical of the decision to not include it in the Labor-HHS-Education measure.
“It’s a shameful reality, and now communities across the country will suffer the consequences as over 1,500 stations lose critical funding,” said Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash. “I really hope Republicans will join us to restore this funding down the line, and I want you to know I am going to keep pushing to do that.”
Trump and congressional Republicans charged that the funding was not necessary and that PBS and NPR are “biased,” as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said June 12 when the House first passed the rescissions bill.
“It is just one of the ways Republicans are codifying [the Department of Government Efficiency’s] findings and putting taxpayer dollars to better use,” Johnson said in a statement.
The CPB was established in 1967 during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration.
“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing education opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” Harrison said in Friday’s statement.
The organization informed its employees Friday that most staff positions will conclude on Sept. 30, with a small transition team remaining in place through January.
