The U.S. Senate voted Thursday morning to cut over $1 billion in federal spending from public media, which includes NPR, PBS and their member stations.
Both Indiana senators, Todd Young and Jim Banks, voted in favor of the cuts. Only two Republican Senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted against resulting in a 51-to-48 vote to return it to the House of Representatives.
Earlier in June, The White House requested Congress cancel $9.4 billion in previously approved funding, including foreign aid programs, and gave lawmakers 45 days to act. If both the House and the Senate don't approve an identical package before Friday at midnight, the funding will be spent as originally designated.
Sen. Young has openly supported the rescissions package as a whole, and Sen. Banks has specifically criticized NPR and supported President Trump’s attempts to cut funding to public media.
“President Trump is exactly right. The American taxpayer should not be forced to fund Democratic propaganda NPR routinely spreads,” Banks said in an X post. “That’s why I’ve introduced legislation to defund NPR once and for all.”
The advancing cuts to public media on the federal level come just after Indiana House Bill 1001 eliminated financial support for all 17 public broadcasting stations in May.
Bloomington’s WFIU-WTIU stations, which comprise Indiana Public Media, are NPR and PBS affiliated. According to WFYI, the stations’ Fiscal Year 2025 budget included 3.8% of funding from the state and 11.2% from the federal government.
If passed, the cuts will likely affect small and rural public media stations more than larger corporations,lawmakers say.
