Bacon Presses House to Restore at Least Some Federal Public Broadcasting Money for FY26
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., confirmed Thursday that he’s pushing House GOP leaders to follow through on their promise to resurrect some public broadcasting funding as part of negotiations on FY 2026 appropriations legislation after Congress rescinded allocated money last year (see 2507280050). Bacon voted in June to approve the rescissions package that rolled back CPB's advance $1.1 billion in FY 2026 and FY 2027 funding after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other leaders committed to restore some of the money via the appropriations process (see 2506130025). Meanwhile, the lower chamber overwhelmingly voted to pass a minibus FY26 package (HR-6938) that includes funding for NTIA and other Commerce Department agencies.
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Bacon told reporters that he's negotiating with House leaders to either restore some “PBS funding” in the FY26 House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services and Related Agencies Subcommittee funding bill text that reaches the floor or allow a vote on an amendment to resurrect the funding. The House and Senate Appropriations committees advanced versions of their FY26 LHHS spending bills last year without any CPB funding (see 2507310062 and 2509100065). CPB formally disbanded earlier this week (see 2601050043).
Bacon indicated that he met with top House appropriators Wednesday on the matter and found no overt opposition to restoring some public broadcasting money. House leaders are in talks on a compromise FY26 minibus that would include LHHS spending in hopes of enacting it before the current continuing resolution expires Jan. 30. House Appropriations LHHS Chairman Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., told reporters Thursday that talks on the spending bill remain positive, but the measure is unlikely to be ready for floor votes next week. He's more optimistic it will reach the floor by “the end of the month.”
Aderholt confirmed to us that Bacon has “talked to me” about at least partially restoring public broadcasting money but emphasized that the matter is “between him and” Johnson. “I don't know exactly the conversation [Bacon] had with [Johnson], but … I'd love to chat with the speaker about it and see what could be done, if possible,” Aderholt said. Public broadcasting money “isn't in the bill right now, but we'll see what transpires.”
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., told us he didn't “know anything about” what Bacon wants in a public broadcasting deal but emphasized that he's “not saying yes or no to anything” for now. However, he noted that congressional Republicans overwhelmingly agreed last year to rescind CPB’s funding at President Donald Trump’s request. NPR and PBS have “news operations that clearly are not unbiased, heavily tilted to the left, and that's OK,” Cole said. “But why should the public” have to pay for it? Both entities “appear to be able to raise money” via donations, and Congress decided “to make some tough decisions to reduce the deficit.”
The House voted 397-28 to pass HR-6938, which would give NTIA $50 million for FY26. That’s more than 8% higher than what Trump asked for in June (see 2506020056), but still 12% lower than the agency received for FY 2025. The bill would give the National Institute of Standards and Technology $1.85 billion, up 59% from FY25 and more than 121% above what Trump sought. The package allocates $245 million, 5% more than Trump proposed, for the DOJ Antitrust Division, while the Patent and Trademark Office would get more than $4.95 billion, nearly level with Trump’s request.