Two days after their hearing (R-La.) exposed the blatantly biased and political content being produced by NPR and PBS at taxpayer expense, members of the House Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) Subcommittee called on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to help them stop the wasteful spending.
During Wednesday’s hearing, “National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) showed once again they are nothing more than left-wing propaganda outlets,” the DOGE Republicans wrote Friday in a letter to Johnson obtained by Politico:
“The DOGE Subcommittee hearing made clear these outlets are not serving the American people, and all federal funding must end.”
“[I]t is essential to pass legislation that prohibits federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We must also rescind any money previously appropriated,” the letter says, noting that roughly a billion dollars of taxpayer money is set to be funneled to PBS and NPR through the corporation over the next two years.
“Taxpayer funds should never go to entities who exist to prop up and provide cover for the Democratic Party,” the letter to House Speaker Johnson says.
The House Republicans go on to suggest that the funding should be cut through “reconciliation, the appropriations process, and a rescissions package” in legislation funding the federal government.
Reconciliation is a Senate maneuver that makes legislation immune from filibuster, thus enabling it to be passed by a simple majority of votes. But, to qualify for reconciliation, the legislation must not affect anything other than the level of spending, revenue, or the debt limit. Whether or not a piece of legislation passes this so-called Byrd Rule is determined by the Senate Parliamentarian, who is expected to be non-partisan.
Republican Senators have reportedly discussed their plan to cut funding for NPR and PBS through reconciliation with the Parliamentarian, wich suggests that they will get a favorable ruling if they decide to take this tact.
At Wednesday’s DOGE subcommittee hearing, Republicans provided examples of the outrageous and highly-politicized content of PBS and NPR, including:
- PBS has openly advocated and glorified transgenderism.
- PBS falsely claimed Elon Musk did a Nazi salute on Inauguration Day.
- Content aired and published by NPR has ranged from defense of looting to “queer dinosaur enthusiasts” and from glorifying obesity and to declaring civility to be racist.
- One NPR affiliate in New York State railed against God Bless America.
The CEOs of the two taxpayer-funded media organizations were also confronted with examples their public comments expressing extremist political views on issues like Marxism, reparations, and white privilege, such as when NPR CEO Katherine Maher complained that truth was getting in the way of getting things done.
Also, during the hearing, NPR’s Maher denied having read a book promoting reparations – until Rep. Brandon Gil (R-Texas) displayed a screenshot of a tweet by Maher in which she publicly bragged about having read the book.
Sign the petition to help us defund PBS and NPR at defundpbsnpr.org.
🚨MUST WATCH🚨
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) March 26, 2025
Old tweets come back to haunt NPR CEO…
GILL: Do you believe that America is addicted to white supremacy?
MAHER: I believe that I tweeted that and, as I've said earlier, I believe much of my thinking has evolved over the last half decade and has evolved…
…… pic.twitter.com/rEzRWxCv2T