WASHINGTON, D.C.—In response to the U.S. Senate approval of the rescission package eliminating $1.1 billion in previously approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the CPB (CPB) said that the “vote by the U.S. Senate to eliminate federal funding...is a decision with profound, lasting, negative consequences for every American.”
CPB’s Harrison stressed that “without federal funding, many local public radio and television stations will be forced to shut down. Parents will have fewer high quality learning resources available for their children. Millions of Americans will have less trustworthy information about their communities, states, country, and world with which to make decisions about the quality of their lives. Cutting federal funding could also put Americans at risk of losing national and local emergency alerts that serve as a lifeline to many Americans in times of severe need.”
The Senate vote on the rescission package was applauded by Republicans and drew condemnation from Senate Democrats and the only Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission. It moves the epic battle over funding for public media back to the courts and the U.S. House of Representatives, where the revised Senate recission bill must be approved by Friday July 18.
On July 15, the Trump administration once again sued the CPB to remove three board members. In April the Trump administration fired three CBP board members who responded with a lawsuit saying he lacked the authority to remove them. In June, a federal judge issued a mixed ruling that denied a request by the board members for a preliminary injunction to block the firings but affirmed CPB’s independence in language that the CPB has been using to keep the three directors on its board.
In the newest suit, the U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C. is asking the court to remove the three board members and declare that all their actions since they were fired on April 28 to null and void.
The full lawsuit is available here.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, meanwhile, issued a strong statement condemning efforts to eliminate public media funding.
“This action is a key step in a coordinated campaign to silence public media, and the latest attempt by this Administration to censor and control speech,” she wrote. “We've yet to see any effort to probe, defund, or threaten news outlets that support the government's views, and there’s a reason for that. This has never been about saving money. It’s about silencing those who report the news accurately, without fear or favor.”
Gomez also attacked the FCC for supporting the effort and for opening investigations into public media. “The FCC is playing a dangerous game with its own baseless attacks on public broadcast stations,” she wrote. “Its role should be to protect and expand the public’s access to timely, accurate news that is free from political interference. I will continue fighting this FCC’s politically motivated efforts to investigate and harass these stations.”
