President Trump proposes eliminating federal funding for PBS, NPR

President Donald Trump's newly proposed budget includes a proposal to end federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), part of a package that includes $300 billion in new spending overall. CPB provides federal funding for PBS and National Public Radio stations. "The Budget proposes to eliminate Federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) over a two year period," according to the proposal. "CPB grants represent a small share of the total funding for the PBS and NPR, which primarily rely on private donations to fund their operations," it continues.

Patricia Harrison, a former top Republican party official and now CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was not pleased with the President's just-released FY 2019 budget and its cutting off all but $15 million for public media in 2019 and 2020. The allocation has been $445 million per year. “Americans place great value on having universal access to public media’s educational and informational programming and services, provided commercial free and free of charge. Since there is no viable substitute for federal funding that would ensure this valued service continues, the elimination of federal funding to CPB would at first devastate, and then ultimately destroy public media’s ability to provide early childhood content, life-saving emergency alerts, and public affairs programs," said Harrison.