The rescission of existing Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) appropriations is being urged as a means of reducing the federal deficit and defunding NPR and PBS. However, annual CPB funding is less than .01% of the federal budget and an insignificant budget reduction target. And cutting CPB funding will have minimal direct funding impact on NPR and PBS. Under America’s public media system, over 70% of the federal funding for CPB goes directly to local stations as operating grants. Much of the rest also supports stations indirectly by covering costs of the shared system resources, infrastructure and services that stations rely on.
Consequently, rescission of CPB funding is not about national organizations or issues, it’s about cutting support for over 1,500 local public radio and television stations and their local service. Bringing this close to home, the rescission would mean a very substantial funding loss for HPPR. Our current annual operating grant from CPB is $222,000 or about 15% of the annual budget. Since the rescission covers two years of expected funding with slight grant increases projected, the total funding loss for HPPR would be about $550,000.
Additionally, CPB also provides about $66,000 of indirect annual support through its funding of system-wide resources on which HPPR depends (e.g., the satellite system by which HPPR receives national programming and connects its 18 stations and the web publishing system for hppr.org through which it also share stories with other stations). Over two years this would be another $132,000 in lost support.
The take back (rescission) of this already appropriated funding would quickly affect HPPR as it has been counting on those funds for its operating budget starting October 1 of this year.* 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
The vote is expected to be held on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of this week and is expected to be very close. If it fails to pass the House, the request dies. If it passes the House, it will move to the Senate where the deadline to act on the request is July 17th.
The best outcome is stopping the rescission now, in the House. You can help by:
- Calling or emailing your U.S. Representative now, in time for the vote, even if you have called or written before, and urging them to oppose the take back (rescission) of already appropriated CPB funding. See the contact list below or reach them through Public My Public Media. For guidance and suggestions when contacting them, click here.
- Urging anyone you know who uses and supports public media to contact their Representative as well, even if they have emailed or called before.
- 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 so as well.
Kansas
KS Rep. Tracy Mann, (202) 225–2715, email,
Sen. Jerry Moran, (202) 224–6521, email
KS Sen. Roger Marshall, (202) 224–4774, email
Texas
TX Rep. Ronny Jackson, (202) 225–3706, email
TX Sen. Ted Cruz,(202) 224–5922, email
TX Sen. John Cornyn, (202) 224–2934, email
Colorado
CO Rep. Lauren Boebert, (202) 225–4761, email
CO Sen. Michael F. Bennet,(202) 224–5852, email
CO Sen. John Hickenlooper, (202) 224–5941, email
Oklahoma
OK Rep. Frank Lucas, (202) 225–5565, email
OK Sen. James Lankford, (202) 224–575, email
OK Sen. Markwayne Mullin, (202) 224–4721, email
If you have questions about the rescission action 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 for two years. So, the White House’s rescission request would take back funds for FY26 and FY27 funds that were appropriated in prior years and are currently in the U.S. Treasury waiting to be released to CPB.
