After 58 Years and $500 Million Annually, Congressional GOP Finally Pulls the Plug on Public Broadcasting

After nearly six decades and more than half a billion dollars a year in taxpayer support, the federal government has formally exited the public broadcasting business.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) — created in 1967 under the Public Broadcasting Act — has voted to dissolve following Congress’s decision to eliminate its federal funding. The move caps a long-running debate over whether government should subsidize media in a modern, competitive information marketplace.

In its final full year of operation, CPB received approximately $535 million in congressional appropriations. Roughly 70 percent of that funding was distributed to more than 1,500 local public radio and television stations nationwide, with the remainder supporting national programming, system infrastructure, and administrative operations. The bulk of those funds ultimately flowed to National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service affiliates.

Supporters long argued that CPB provided educational and cultural programming unavailable in commercial media. Critics countered that public broadcasting had evolved into a permanent, taxpayer-funded media institution operating in an environment where scarcity no longer exists.

That criticism has echoed for decades.

Republican opposition to federally funded broadcasting dates back at least to the early 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan proposed substantial cuts to CPB’s budget, arguing that a free press should not depend on government subsidies. While Congress preserved funding at the time, concerns over political bias, fiscal responsibility, and relevance persisted across administrations.

Those objections resurfaced repeatedly in the 1990s and again during the Trump era, when multiple White House budgets proposed eliminating CPB funding outright. Congress resisted until 2025.

That year, a Republican-controlled Congress approved a rescissions package clawing back more than $1 billion in previously approved public broadcasting funds, effectively ending CPB’s federal revenue stream. Without congressional appropriations, CPB’s board concluded the organization could no longer fulfill its statutory role and voted to wind down operations.

The decision has drawn sharp reactions. Public broadcasting advocates warn that smaller and rural stations may struggle without federal grants and that emergency broadcasting infrastructure could be weakened. Critics respond that public media outlets remain free to operate, fundraise, and compete just without compulsory taxpayer support.

What ended with CPB’s dissolution is not speech, journalism, or public access to information. What ended is the federal government’s role as a financial backer of broadcast media.

In a digital era defined by limitless platforms, private funding, and audience choice, Congress has concluded that public broadcasting no longer requires or justifies permanent taxpayer subsidy. After 58 years, the government media experiment is over.