Sponsor
Mike Lee
Senator · R-UT
Senator · R-UT
The bill returns designated public-broadcasting allocations to the Treasury and simplifies federal funding flows, improving near-term federal receipts while reducing funding for PBS/NPR and local public stations — trading public-media services and local station stability for budgetary revenue and modest administrative work for CPB.
Taxpayers and the federal budget: The bill requires CPB to transfer specified public-broadcasting allocations for FY2025–FY2027 back to the Treasury, reducing federal outlays and increasing near-term federal receipts.
Federal administration of public-broadcasting support: The bill eliminates a dedicated federal funding stream to certain nonprofit broadcasters, simplifying federal outlays and reducing a targeted subsidy mechanism.
Households, schools, and universities that rely on public media: PBS, NPR, and independent public stations lose federal support that funds programming and operations, likely reducing national public-media services and educational content.
Local public broadcast stations and their communities: Stations that depend on CPB pass-throughs could face revenue shortfalls, forcing cuts to local programming, staffing, or services.
Public-benefit tradeoff for taxpayers and beneficiaries: The bill converts allocated public-broadcasting support into Treasury receipts, trading cultural and educational services for budgetary revenue.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits federal funds for PBS, NPR, and successors and requires CPB to transfer the FY2025–FY2027 allocations that would have gone to them into the Treasury.
Stops any federal funds from being used to support PBS, NPR, or their successors, including dues or programming purchases by public broadcast stations. For fiscal years 2025–2027, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting must transfer to the Treasury amounts equal to the allocations that would have gone to PBS or NPR had the prohibition not been in place.
Introduced February 11, 2025 by Mike Lee · Last progress February 11, 2025