Doing away with a public good
In recent DOGE hearings there have been claims and charges that public media is not a public good, that it is anti-American, serves an increasingly narrow and elitist audience, has repeatedly undermined the trust of Americans and is a blatant misuse of taxpayer funds for partisan ends.
There have been accompanying actions to eliminate all federal support for public media by defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and undermine the independence of local stations:
- All federal funding for the CPB is eliminated in the White House’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget sent to Congress;
- A White House request to Congress to take back two years of already appropriated funding for CPB is planned and expected to be issued soon*;
- An Executive Order has been issued directing CPB and any federal agencies to halt funding to NPR and PBS and prohibiting local public media stations from using federal funds to support NPR or PBS.
The public good provided by America’s public media system of over 1,500 independent local stations serving 99% of Americans is now a political target.
The local view on these national actions
From the local perspective of HPPR and the listeners it serves, these charges and defunding actions driven by a national political agenda are hard to understand or rationalize. First of all, defunding CPB actually defunds local stations (like HPPR) and their local services, not national organizations like NPR and PBS. That’s because nearly all of CPB’s funds go directly to local stations through operating grants and shared support services. Only one percent of NPR’s budget comes from CPB.
More fundamentally, HPPR doesn’t serve political or commercial interests, it serves people - individuals across the High Plains with a wide range of interests and perspectives. And it’s not a regional branch of some national organization (like NPR). HPPR operates as an independent non-profit organization governed by a board of directors elected from local supporters. It determines the programming it offers, whether it's selecting news programs from NPR, the BBC and many other sources or producing a music program like High Plains Morning offering Americana music and promoting area musicians.
As for the value and trust the public places in HPPR’s local service, that is evident in the voluntary financial support given by individuals, businesses, organizations and foundations from across the High Plains who provide over 80% of HPPR’s annual funding. It’s also evident in the comments received from listeners detailing the many ways that HPPR is important to them personally and as an important public good available in their community.
How defunding CPB nationally affects HPPR locally
These charges and actions at the national level pose a great threat to HPPR and the local services and public good that it provides to the High Plains. HPPR currently receives about $222,000 annually from CPB as a “community service” grant that is about 15% of its total annual budget. CPB also provides about $66,000 of indirect annual support through its funding of system-wide resources on which HPPR depends. Without this funding HPPR would be hard pressed to continue its current levels of service, including operating transmitters reaching the most rural areas of the High Plains, providing two 24/7 programming services (HPPR Mix and HPPR Connect) with their wide range of local, national and international programming, covering state and regional news, and promoting the work of local music, arts, culture, education and social service organizations across the region.
What you can do to help
If you value HPPR’s programming and the public good it provides your community and High Plains region, please:
- Call or email your U.S. Senators and Representative now, and urge them to: 1.) oppose any take back (rescission) of already appropriated CPB funding and 2.) support continued funding of CPB in the FY26 budget.
Sign up here for the “three calls a day” campaign or go ahead and contact them now. See the listing of phone numbers and email links below. See here for guidance and sample scripts when calling them.
- Urge anyone you know who uses and supports public media to contact their Senators and Representatives as well.
- For email alerts and updates on the status of defunding and other actions against public media, sign-up with Protect My Public Media and encourage others to do.
- If you’ve never contributed to HPPR before or if it's been a while since you gave, now is the time when your support really matters. Direct support from individuals has always been the mainstay of HPPR and is a declaration of the value you and your community receive from HPPR. Give here.
If you have questions about the threats being faced or how HPPR would be affected, please contact Abby Killingsworth, HPPR Development Director (akillingsworth@hppr.org, 800-678-7444) or Quentin Hope, HPPR Executive Director (qhope@hppr.org).
*By law, CPB is forward-funded by two years. So, the elimination of CPB funding in the FY26 budget is for FY28. The proposed rescission of funds would be for FY26 and FY27 funds that were appropriated in prior year and are currently in the U.S. Treasury waiting to be released to CPB. This forward funding is a key part of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 that’s intended to protect CPB from political interference.
Contact information for Senators and Representatives in the HPPR coverage area:
Kansas
Sen. Jerry Moran, email, (202) 224–6521
KS Rep. Tracy Mann, email, (202) 225–2715
KS Sen. Roger Marshall, email, (202) 224–4774
Texas
TX Sen. Ted Cruz, email, (202) 224–5922, 127A
TX Sen. John Cornyn, email, (202) 224–2934
TX Rep. Ronny Jackson, email, (202) 225–3706
Colorado
CO Sen. Michael F. Bennet, email, (202) 224–5852
CO Sen. John Hickenlooper, email, (202) 224–5941
CO Rep. Lauren Boebert, email, (202) 225–4761
Oklahoma
OK Sen. James Lankford, email, (202) 224–5754
OK Sen. Markwayne Mullin, email, (202) 224–4721
OK Rep. Frank Lucas, email, (202) 225–5565
