Cruz Presses NPR on Funding Sources Amid Public Broadcasting Appropriations Fight
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pressed NPR Tuesday for information about its funding sources amid the House GOP's push to end CPB’s advance funding for FY 2027. Thus far no lawmakers have tried stopping the House from moving forward on the Appropriations Committee-cleared Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY 2025 funding bill (HR-9029), which excludes advance money for the broadcasting network. House leaders meanwhile pulled the Appropriations-approved FY 2025 FCC-FTC funding bill (HR-8773) from planned floor consideration Monday, delaying potential floor votes on filed amendments that seek to undo a ban on the FCC implementing an equity action plan and increase the FTC’s annual funding (see 2407100060).
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NPR “is falling short” of its mandate to “adhere to ‘objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature,’” Cruz said in a letter to NPR CEO Katherine Maher. Congressional Republicans have scrutinized claims of NPR's Democratic Party bias since April, less than a month after Maher began leading the network, including during a May House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing (see 2405080064). “NPR’s selective reporting may be driven not only by preexisting political bias within the organization but also by its private donors,” Cruz told Maher. “The timing and content of certain NPR articles align with earmarked, multi-million-dollar donations from left-wing nonprofits looking to advance their own narratives in the press.”
Cruz simultaneously criticized NPR for asserting “that it is not ‘government-funded media’” and for receiving “substantial support from left-leaning foundations” that in 2022 and 2023 awarded it grants of up to $4 million. Less than 2% of NPR’s annual funding in FY22 came from CPB, but an additional $24.6 million in federal programming grants went to local stations to help them pay fees to the radio broadcaster for national content. NPR “churned out content mirroring its donors’ agendas,” including on global health and climate change issues after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave the broadcaster $4 million specifically to pay for covering those matters, Cruz said.
“If the American taxpayer is going to finance a public broadcaster, then they deserve nothing less than fair and unbiased reporting,” Cruz said. He asked Maher to provide information by Friday from FY 2019 onward related to grants and donations worth at least $5,000 and member stations’ payments to NPR. Cruz also wants to know how NPR ensures “that financial contributions from its donors do not impact its editorial decisions” and addresses other objectivity issues.
“NPR’s newsroom is independent and free from outside influence,” a spokesperson emailed. “Our supporters have no input into our editorial decisions and no access to our journalists. We’re grateful to all who support public media’s mission to deliver impartial, fact-based news and reporting to the American public.”
Appropriations
As of Tuesday afternoon, no House members filed amendments to HR-9029 aimed at restoring CPB’s advance money for FY27. A House Appropriations report on HR-9029 emphasizes that it’s not trying to claw back $535 million in FY 2025 funding Congress previously allocated CPB (see 2407100060). President Joe Biden requested in March that CPB receive $595 million for FY27 (see 2403110056).
Lawmakers filed at least two proposals to increase Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funding to implement the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., proposes taking $10 million from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ allocation to pay for the additional 988 funding. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., proposed a $10 million increase offset by reducing the National Institutes of Health Office of the Director’s funding. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., filed an amendment that would simultaneously decrease and increase SAMHSA’s overall funding to obligate that amount in part to pay for 988 operators.
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., didn’t offer a specific timeline Monday for the chamber to bring back HR-8773 for floor consideration. “There’s other stuff coming on the floor” that chamber leaders thought should take priority over the FCC-FTC funding bill, including legislation creating a commission to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the GOP’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election (see 2407150056), Cole told reporters.
The yank-back delayed House Rules Committee consideration of whether to allow floor votes on proposed HR-8773 amendments to undo a ban on the FCC implementing an equity action plan and increase the FTC’s annual funding (see 2407100060). The underlying bill proposes boosting the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million but includes riders barring the commission from implementing GOP-opposed net neutrality and digital discrimination orders (see 2406050067).