Corporation for Public Broadcasting is officially shutting down months after GOP funding cuts
WASHINGTON — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which helped fund NPR, PBS and many local radio and television stations — is officially shuttered, months after Congress passed spending cuts that stripped it of more than $1 billion in funding.
The CPB board of directors voted to dissolve the private, nonprofit corporation after 58 years of service, the organization announced in a news release Monday.
“For more than half a century, CPB has existed to ensure that all Americans, regardless of geography, income or background, have access to trusted news, educational programs and local stories,” said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB.
Harrison added that when President Donald Trump signed into law last summer a measure to defund Congress, the CPB board “faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and democratic values by dissolving itself, rather than allowing the organization to remain unfunded and vulnerable to further attacks.” »
The CPB said its leaders determined that “without the resources necessary to fulfill the responsibilities entrusted to it by Congress, maintaining the company as a non-functional entity would not serve the public interest or advance the goals of public media.”
The organization announced in August that it would begin closing its doors after Congress passed funding cuts. At the time, he said most positions would be eliminated by the end of September and a small team would remain in place until January.
In its statement Monday, the organization said it would distribute all of its remaining funds.
Over the summer, the Republican-led House and Senate passed a package of funding cuts targeting the CPB and other government agencies, canceling money Congress had previously allocated to them and fulfilling a request from the Trump administration.
The CPB, established by Congress in 1967, has helped support more than 1,500 local radio and television stations nationwide. It also financed popular programs like “Sesame Street.” Programs on PBS and NPR were able to remain on the air thanks to other funding sources.
