FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has asked the Enforcement and Media bureaus to investigate PBS and NPR member stations over possible underwriting violations, and he doesn’t think they should receive taxpayer funds, according to identical letters sent to the CEOs of those stations Wednesday. Attorneys told us the FCC hasn’t historically been very active in policing underwriting, and the agency’s Democrats said that the letters appeared to be an attempt to intimidate public broadcasters.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose connection with President-elect Donald Trump may result in him leading a government efficiency effort (see 2411080033), said Tuesday the federal government should consider ending funding for NPR. Top GOP lawmakers raised concerns earlier this year about continued federal NPR funding in response to claims of pro-Democratic bias at the broadcast network (see 2405070044). Musk’s defunding call cited a 2021 video clip of now-NPR CEO Katherine Maher saying “our reverence for the truth might have become a bit of a distraction that is preventing us from finding consensus and getting important things done.” Maher didn’t become NPR CEO until March this year. Musk asked “should your tax dollars really be paying for an organization run by people who think the truth is a ‘distraction’?”

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pressed NPR Tuesday for information about its funding sources amid the House GOP's push to end CPB’s advance funding for FY 2027. Thus far no lawmakers have tried stopping the House from moving forward on the Appropriations Committee-cleared Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY 2025 funding bill (HR-9029), which excludes advance money for the broadcasting network. House leaders meanwhile pulled the Appropriations-approved FY 2025 FCC-FTC funding bill (HR-8773) from planned floor consideration Monday, delaying potential floor votes on filed amendments that seek to undo a ban on the FCC implementing an equity action plan and increase the FTC’s annual funding (see 2407100060).

Expect a Donald Trump White House and FCC to focus on deregulation and undoing the agency's net neutrality and digital discrimination rules, telecom policy experts and FCC watchers tell us. Brendan Carr, one of the two GOP minority commissioners, remains the seeming front-runner to head the agency if Trump wins the White House in November (see 2407120002). Despite repeated comments from Trump as a candidate and president calling for FCC action against companies such as CNN and MSNBC over their news content, many FCC watchers on both sides of the aisle told us they don’t expect the agency to actually act against cable networks or broadcast licenses under a second Trump administration.

Public broadcasting advocates are bracing for House Republicans to again attempt ending advance funding for CPB as part of the FY 2025 appropriations process, but they’re hopeful the effort will fall short as it has in the past. The first salvo will likely happen Thursday, when the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) Subcommittee is set to mark up its FY25 bill. The subpanel unsuccessfully tried halting CPB's advance federal funding as part of the FY 2024 appropriations cycle (see 2307140069). Observers are monitoring whether Republicans will use recent claims of pro-Democratic Party bias at NPR (see 2405080064) as ammunition to move further on defunding that network or CPB.

Republican lawmakers blasted NPR CEO Katherine Maher during a House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing Wednesday and suggested that Congress should conduct more regular oversight of NPR and CPB or defund them (see 2405070044).

Congressional Republicans’ recent renewed interest in ending federal funding for NPR is a major issue in a memo from House Commerce Committee GOP aides and in written testimony from witnesses ahead of a Wednesday Oversight Subcommittee hearing on recent claims of pro-Democratic Party bias at the public broadcasting network (see 2405010081). Several Republican lawmakers filed legislation or are eyeing crafting measures aimed at ending NPR’s federal funding (see 2404190060), including the Defund NPR Act (HR-8083). The Commerce Oversight hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

House Commerce Committee GOP leaders said Wednesday they’ve opened an investigation into recent claims of pro-Democratic Party bias at NPR. Several congressional Republicans filed or are eyeing legislation aimed at ending NPR’s federal funding in response to the bias reports, including the Defund NPR Act (HR-8083) (see 2404190060). Past attempts at halting NPR's portion of CPB federal funding have failed, including a bid during the FY 2024 cycle by Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas (see 2311030069). The House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee summoned NPR CEO Katherine Maher to testify at a May 8 hearing. Panel leaders want her to respond by May 14 to a range of questions about the political viewpoint balance within the broadcasting network. House Commerce “has concerns about the direction in which NPR may be headed under past and present leadership,” said panel Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta (Ohio) and Oversight Chairman Morgan Griffith (Va.). in a Tuesday letter to Maher. “As a taxpayer funded, public radio organization, NPR should focus on fair and objective news reporting that both considers and reflects the views of the larger U.S. population and not just a niche audience.” Committee Republicans also “find it disconcerting that NPR’s coverage of major news in recent years has been so polarized as to preclude any need to uncover the truth,” the lawmakers said: “These have included news stories on matters of national security and importance,” including “the COVID-19 origins investigation” and scrutiny into the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop. “On each of these issues, NPR has been accused of approaching its news reporting with an extreme left-leaning lens,” the Republicans said. NPR didn’t comment.

Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., filed dueling bills Friday to cut off federal money for NPR and “any successor organization” in response to recent claims of pro-Democratic political bias at the broadcasting network. Both lawmakers named their bills the Defund NPR Act. Tenney’s legislation would also direct CPB to claw back advance allocations for NPR for fiscal years 2024, 2025 and 2026 to “reduce the public debt.” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is also eyeing legislation to kill NPR's federal funding. The network has drawn increased ire from conservative media organizations over its disciplining of now-former editor Uri Berliner for publishing an essay criticizing the organization for appearing to stray into open advocacy against former President Donald Trump and other conservatives. Berliner resigned Wednesday after NPR suspended him without pay for five days. NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who took that job March 25, has been a focus of criticism in the wake of Berliner’s resignation and her own past support for President Joe Biden’s 2020 election over Trump. NPR “has been a liberal propaganda machine for years” and Congress shouldn’t appropriate it “another dime,” Banks said in a Fox News opinion piece. “American taxpayers should not be forced to fund NPR, which has become a partisan propaganda machine,” Tenney said. Congress allocated CPB $535 million in advance funding for FY 2026 as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package Biden signed in March (see 2403210067). House Appropriations Committee Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to end CPB's advance funding as part of FY24 spending legislation (see 2307140069). Biden is proposing to increase CPB’s advance funding to $595 million for FY 2027 (see 2403110056), while the House Republican Study Committee wants to fully end that allocation. Past attempts to end NPR's part of CPB federal funding have failed, including a bid during the FY24 cycle by Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas (see 2311030069).

An FCC proposal prioritizing processing of applications from broadcasters that offer local programming (see 2401180074) won’t have much of an effect and doesn’t do enough, according to a wide swath of comments filed to docket 24-14 by Monday’s deadline.