According to Deadline, funding is in danger of being cut from public media. The House voted 216 to 213 last Friday. Now, the bill will be sent to the executive branch for President Trump’s signature. Roughly $1.1 billion in federal funding will be cut from public broadcasting stations PBS and NPR.  The complete $9 billion proposal cuts include funding for foreign aid and health programs.

According to Deadline, public media was initially formed by Congress in 1967.  Federal funding had already been allocated by Congress for the next two fiscal years, starting on April 1. Currently, public stations are facing large budget cuts effective immediately.

Katherine Maher, the CEO of NPR, called the funding cuts “an unwarranted dismantling of beloved local civic institutions, and an act of Congress that disregards the public will,” according to Deadline. “Despite promises from some members of Congress to fix anything that the bill breaks, this will be an irreversible loss. If a station doesn’t survive this sudden turn by Congress, a vital stitch in our American fabric will be gone for good.” She hopes donations from listeners nationwide will help them rebuild.

According to Deadline, advocates have been lobbying congressional representatives for the past weeks to preserve the funding that was allocated to the stations. On the other side, President Trump targeted PBS and NPR programming, alleging bias toward left-leaning politics. Even though this has been a complaint from the right for a while, this time is different. Trump threatened to withhold federal support from those who did not support his package.  The advocates had hoped to have had enough Republican support to claim defeat. Only two Republicans, Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) and Mike Turner (OH), joined the vote against the package along with the Democrats.

Deadline also reported that after the vote, Trump posted on Truth Social, “HOUSE APPROVES NINE BILLION DOLLAR CUTS PACKAGE, INCLUDING ATROCIOUS NPR AND PUBLIC BROADCASTING, WHERE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS A YEAR WERE WASTED. REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED…BUT NO MORE. THIS IS BIG!!