Bacon: FY26 Public Broadcasting Money Restoration Still 'Live Issue,' Despite OMB 'Threats'
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., is continuing to push for some of the public broadcasting funding that Congress rescinded last year to return as part of an FY 2026 appropriations minibus bill currently under negotiation (see 2601080070), but lawmakers and observers see diminishing chances that will succeed. Meanwhile, Congress continued Wednesday night and Thursday to advance separate FY26 appropriations packages that would fund the FCC and NTIA.
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Bacon told us his bid to resurrect some FY26 public broadcasting money is “still a live issue,” clarifying that he’s proposing that the money go directly to local stations, bypassing NPR and PBS. The $1.1 billion in advance FY26 and FY27 funding that Congress clawed back in July as part of the 2025 Rescissions Act would have gone to CPB, which doled out allocations to NPR, PBS and their local affiliates (see 2507280050). The House and Senate Appropriations committees last year advanced their respective Labor, Health and Human Services and Related Agencies subcommittees’ FY26 bills (HR-5304/S-2587) without any CPB money (see 2507310062 and 2509100065). CPB formally disbanded earlier this month (see 2601050043).
Bacon said he and other public broadcasting supporters met Wednesday with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., about the matter. Bacon also emphasized that he's “holding [GOP leaders] to their commitment” last year that they would restore some of the FY26 funding in exchange for his vote to pass the rescissions package. Johnson acknowledged that promise and appears to be “a kindred heart,” Bacon said, but the White House OMB remains “aggressively against” resurrecting any of the money, even directly to local stations.
OMB “threats” and pressure on Senate and House Appropriations leaders mean the public broadcasting money is unlikely to make it into the compromise text that those committees are aiming to release over the weekend, Bacon told reporters. An amendment to resurrect it is now the more attractive alternative, “but I think [the situation remains] fluid.” He stressed that “OMB was not elected. We were.” The White House didn’t immediately comment.
Republicans “don't have to like the corporate PBS here in D.C., [but] we like our local” broadcasters, Bacon said. “They've been very good, and they do a lot of [emergency alerts, like] tornado warnings and things like that.” Local broadcasters are “good to the community and especially rural communities.” President Donald Trump sought the rescission of the funding last year because of his ire over what the administration says is pro-Democratic national content from NPR and PBS (see 2506030065).
No White House 'Appetite'
House LHHS Chairman Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., confirmed that the latest minibus language under discussion doesn’t include any public broadcasting money. “The White House just does not have an appetite” to restore any public broadcasting money, even if it funnels directly to local stations and bypasses national NPR and PBS, he said. “I’m not for all of the money [returning], but I wouldn’t mind seeing some language in [the LHHS bill] to try to help some of these local channels” on public education programming.
Senate LHHS Chair Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told us she “would be opposed to” restoring any public broadcasting funding as part of an FY26 minibus. CPB has already “folded, and a lot of these stations [remain] in business and are getting more contributions and balancing their books” even without the federal funding.
Senate LHHS ranking member Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., told us she supports “Bacon’s efforts, but I have a fear that the White House is going to hold firm and that it may not prevail in the end.” During Senate Appropriations’ July markup of its FY26 bill, Baldwin offered and then immediately withdrew an amendment that would have given CPB $559 million (see 2507310062).
America’s Public Television Stations CEO Kate Riley praised Bacon in an emailed statement “for his efforts to restore essential funding to these local stations to ensure the continuation of lifesaving public safety services, exceptional education resources, and local storytelling.” The group continues “to call on Congress to act now to restore some level of support for local stations in the final FY 2026 funding bills,” Riley said. “In the wake of the [CPB funding] rescission, local stations throughout the country have been forced to make extraordinarily difficult decisions to reduce or eliminate local programs and services, along with laying off staff who provide these critical services.”
The Senate voted 82-15 Thursday to pass the House-approved minibus FY26 package (HR-6938), which would increase NTIA’s annual funding to $50 million (see 2601080070). The measure now heads to Trump, who is expected to sign it. Meanwhile, the House on Wednesday night passed a separate FY26 minibus (HR-7006) that would increase the FCC’s annual allocation to $416.1 million, including $13.5 million for its Office of Inspector General (see 2601120056). It would decrease the FTC’s funding to $383.6 million for FY26.