Tenney introduces bill to defund PBS and NPR
Congresswoman Claudia Tenney introduced a bill Tuesday that would prohibit federal funding for NPR and PBS.
The Defund Government Sponsored Propaganda Act would disallow both indirect and direct federal support of the organizations, "including through the payment of dues to or the purchase of programming from the organization(s) by a public broadcast station," the bill's text reads. The legislation was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
NPR receives about 1% of its funding directly from the federal government, compared to 16% for PBS. Both are also supported by member stations that receive funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a publicly funded non-profit corporation.
Tenney, whose district covers most of Jefferson County including Watertown, claimed NPR and PBS have a partisan bias.
"As a former newspaper owner and publisher, I understand the vital role of balanced, non-partisan media," the Republican said in a statement. "Unfortunately, these taxpayer-funded outlets have chosen advocacy over accuracy, using public dollars to promote a political agenda rather than report the facts."
This isn't the first time Tenney has gone after public media funding. Last year, she introduced a bill to prohibit federal funding for NPR, though it never made it out of committee.
U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, introduced the Senate version of the bill.
“Americans have hundreds of sources of news and commentary, and they don’t need politically biased, taxpayer-funded media choosing what they should see and hear," he said. "PBS and NPR are free to compete in the marketplace of ideas using donations, but their public subsidy should end."
The introduction of the bill coincides with threats by President Donald Trump's administration to public media funding. Click here to learn more about what that means for local stations like NCPR.
