WASHINGTON — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helped fund NPR, PBS and many local radio and television stations, is officially shutting down, months after Congress enacted spending cuts that cost the organization more than $1 billion.
The CBP board of directors voted to dissolve the private, nonprofit corporation after 58 years of operation. The organization announced this in a press release Monday, January 5th.
“For more than half a century, CPB has existed to ensure that all Americans—regardless of geography, income or background—have access to trusted news, educational programs and local stories,” Patricia Harrison, CPB president and CEO, said in a statement.
Harrison added that when President Donald Trump signed legislation defunding Congress last summer, the CPB board was “faced with a profound responsibility: CPB's final act will be to protect the integrity of the public media system and democratic values through dissolution, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks.”
CPB said its leaders determined that “without the resources to carry out its responsibilities assigned by Congress, maintaining the corporation as a dysfunctional entity will not serve the public interest and will not advance the goals of public media.”
Organization announced It began closing last August after Congress passed funding cuts. At the time, it said most staff positions would be eliminated by the end of September 2025, with a small team remaining until January 2026.
In a statement Monday, the organization said it would distribute any remaining funds.
Over the summer, the Republican-led House and Senate passed a funding reduction package targeting CPB and other government agencies by rescinding money Congress had previously allocated to them and complying with the Trump administration's request.
Created by Congress in 1967, CPB has helped support more than 1,500 local radio and television stations across the country. This is also funded popular programs like Sesame Street. Programs on PBS and NPR were able to stay on the air thanks to other funding sources.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.
