Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

8. Media Agencies (USAGM, CPB) · Major · Needs Congress

Strip the Corporation for Public Broadcasting of taxpayer funding

Done

246 8. Media Agencies (USAGM, CPB)

“All of which means that the next conservative President must finally get this done and do it despite opposition from congressional members of his own party if necessary. To stop public funding is good policy and good politics.”

What has happened

  1. Done

    With no federal funding left, CPB's board voted to dissolve the corporation after 58 years; most staff had gone by 2025-09-30. The Mandate's ask — stop public funding — is complete; the corporation itself is winding down.

  2. Done

    The Rescissions Act of 2025 (H.R. 4, P.L. 119-28) rescinded the amounts appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for FY2026 (P.L. 118-47) and FY2027 (P.L. 119-4) — about $1.1 billion, CPB's entire forward funding. House 214-212 (2025-06-12), Senate 51-48 (2025-07-17), House concurrence 2025-07-18.

  3. Attempted

    Executive Order 14290 directed the CPB board to stop direct and indirect funding of NPR and PBS and told every agency to end their federal funding. It did not touch CPB's own appropriation, which only Congress can rescind. (The order's agency-funding cutoff was later permanently enjoined as to NPR and PBS, 2026-03-31.)

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • CPB’s own announcements — the 2025-08-01 wind-down notice and the board’s dissolution vote (https://cpb.org/pressroom/corporation-public-broadcasting-board-votes-dissolve-organization-act-responsible) — are on cpb.org, which is not on the list of sources we accept (CPB is a private nonprofit, not an agency). Leads; the NPR pieces are the accepted record and were recorded by title and publication date (the pages timed out when we tried to read them). The Washington Post dates the board vote 2026-01-05; the NPR piece is dated 2026-01-06 — the event date is not yet confirmed.
  • Courts: CPB v. Trump, D.D.C. 1:25-cv-01305 (board-member removals) — preliminary injunction denied 2025-06-08 (ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov …2025cv1305-32, on file), case terminated 2026-01-14 per CourtListener’s bulk docket data. NPR v. Trump / PBS v. Trump, D.D.C. 1:25-cv-01674, 1:25-cv-01722 — on 2026-03-31 Judge Moss permanently enjoined the agency defendants from implementing EO 14290’s instruction to cease funding NPR and PBS (…2025cv1722-33, on file). That ruling concerns the order, not the rescission, and does not restore CPB’s money, so it does not change the Status.
  • The FY2026 appropriations for CPB were not re-added: nothing titled “public broadcasting” appears among public laws or bills in Congress after the Rescissions Act.
Action
eliminate
Object
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) federal funding
ID
638