The Trump administration formally requested Tuesday that Congress claw back money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR. CPB received $525 million in federal funding in 2024 and $535 million in 2025. But under the new plan, if passed into law, it would see its federal budget completely slashed for 2026 and 2027.

A spokesperson from the White House Office of Management and Budget told The Washington Post that it is requesting to rescind about $1.1 billion in funding, and in a post on X called the organization “left wing.” “Federal spending on CPB subsidizes a public media system that is politically biased and is an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer,” OMB Director Russell Vought wrote in a letter to the president, which was included in the formal rescission request.

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The proposed cuts to CPB’s budget are part of a larger $9.4 billion rescission package that otherwise largely targets foreign aid through the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In a budget appendix released Friday for fiscal 2026, the White House proposed cutting all but $30 million in federal funding to CPB, “to conduct an orderly closeout of Federal funding for the Corporation.”

CPB is an independent nonprofit established by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 that steers congressional allocations to public media entities like PBS and NPR, and their member stations.

But President Donald Trump has sought to end taxpayer support for what he considers “biased” media. In April, he first confirmed his intent to request formal rescission from Congress before attempting to unilaterally defund CPB through a May 1 executive order.

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On May 27, NPR sued the government in U.S. District Court in Washington, alleging that the executive order violates its First Amendment rights. PBS followed with a similar lawsuit against the government Friday.

Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, wrote in a statement that the rescissions would “have a devastating impact” on PBS member stations, meaning Americans will lose important local coverage.

“There’s nothing more American than PBS and we are proud to highlight real issues, individuals, and places that would otherwise be overlooked by commercial media,” Kerger wrote. “Public media is a public-private partnership and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress.

“During this fight we will demonstrate our value to Congress, as we have over the last 50 years, in providing educational, enriching programs and critical services to all Americans every day free.”

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Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, wrote that the organization cannot take criticism seriously and work to improve if its funding is completely cut. “Federal funding for the public broadcasting system is irreplaceable,” Harrison wrote. “Public media serves all — families and individuals, in rural and urban communities — free of charge and commercial free. American taxpayers rely upon and trust public media for high quality educational content, information, and lifesaving alerts.”

NPR CEO Katherine Maher wrote that this bill would hurt Americans. “This rescission would have a negligible impact on reducing the deficit and provide little-to-no savings for taxpayers, yet it would harm all Americans, shutting off access to local news, national reporting, music and regional culture, and emergency alerting,” Maher wrote in a statement.

Trump has also taken aim at individual CPB officials. Three of CPB’s five board members received letters of termination from a White House official on April 28. The next day, CPB and the board members in question sued the government, saying the president — who nominates board members, who are then confirmed by the Senate — does not have the power to unilaterally remove them.

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The ordeal has been just one prong of a multifaceted war on the media initiated by the Trump administration. The administration has feuded in court with the Associated Press over access to covering White House events, and the president personally sued CBS over an interview with rival Kamala Harris and has since encouraged the FCC to investigate the network. The administration is also in the process of dismantling Voice of America and government-funded nonprofit media networks.

Federal funding to PBS and NPR makes up about 15 percent and 1 percent of their respective budgets. Those numbers are higher for PBS and NPR member stations: 18 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

The foreign aid and public broadcasting cuts could be the first of several “rescission” requests sent to Congress in the coming months.

The foreign aid and public broadcasting cuts could be the first of several “rescission” requests sent to Congress in the coming months. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

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For months, DOGE has been cutting federal spending without consulting Congress. Now, the White House is asking lawmakers to vote to make some of those cuts permanent.

President Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget sent a $9.4 billion “rescission package” to Congress on Tuesday that would claw back federal funding that lawmakers have previously approved.

The package includes $8.3 billion in foreign aid cuts and nearly $1.1 billion in cuts to public broadcasting.

That’s less than half of one percent of the $2 trillion in federal spending cuts once floated by Elon Musk, who until recently was the de facto DOGE leader. And these cuts are seen as low-hanging fruit.

This could be the first of several bills sent to Congress to codify DOGE cuts into law.

“We look forward to working with the Congress to identify additional opportunities to put the Nation’s fiscal house back in order,” Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought wrote in a letter accompanying the request.

Here’s what the Trump administration is trying to cut

The administration is asking Congress to cut a total of $9.4 billion.

$1.07 billion of that is funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a government-backed entity that funds NPR and PBS. That’s equivalent to two years of funding.

The other $8.3 billion includes various forms of foreign aid: $6.3 billion of that funding is related to the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, the foreign aid agency that DOGE shuttered in the early months of the administration.

That includes $2.5 billion in development assistance, $1.65 billion in economic support funds, and $900 billion for global health programs.

The White House has also requested that Congress rescind $1.13 billion in contributions to various international organizations, including $800 billion for migration and refugee assistance, and a combined $64 million for organizations like the Inter-American Foundation, the African Development Foundation, at the United States Institute of Peace.

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There’s a limited amount of time to get this done

Under the Impoundment Control Act, or ICA, the president is generally required to spend money that Congress has already approved. The law was passed in 1974, after President Richard Nixon refused to spend money on a variety of programs that he disagreed with.

Trump and his allies have argued that this law is unconstitutional, and some Republicans in Congress have introduced a bill to eliminate it entirely.

The administration has also withheld hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding already, and the Government Accountability Office has found that the administration is violating the ICA.

But the ICA also provides for the president to make rescission requests to Congress, and the Trump administration is now using that tool.

Under the law, Congress has 45 days of consecutive session to approve the cuts, or the money must be spent. That means lawmakers have until early September to get this done.

Unlike other bills, rescission bills only require a simple majority in the Senate to pass. That means Democrats, who are expected to broadly oppose the legislation, have no way of blocking the cuts on their own.

That doesn’t mean GOP support will be unanimous. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, for example, recently wrote an op-ed in a local paper opposing cuts to public broadcasting funding.

The last time a president tried to do this, it failed. In 2018, the Trump administration asked Congress to rescind $15 billion in federal spending, but the bill failed to pass the Senate.

Here’s the full text of the White House’s rescission request:

https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/25960446-proposed-rescissions-of-budgetary-resources/?embed=1