Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shut down after federal funding cuts

(CNN) — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Friday that it will wind down its operations due to the successful Republican effort to defund local PBS and NPR stations across the country.

The announcement came just over a week after President Donald Trump signed into law a rescissions bill clawing back congressionally approved federal funds for public media and foreign aid. Of the $9 billion in canceled funds, $1.1 billion was earmarked for the CPB.

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” CPB president and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a statement. “CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.”

Officials at the organization, which was founded more than 60 years ago, said they are focused on helping local stations figure out how to cope with sudden budget shortfalls. Harrison has warned that some stations, particularly in rural areas, will have to shut down without federal support.

Most larger stations have numerous other funding sources, including viewer and listener donations, to soften the blow dealt by Congress. Still, public media executives have warned that the interconnected system will be weakened in various ways without federal funding as a foundation.

Most of the corporation’s roughly 100 staff positions will be eliminated when the money runs out on September 30. The CPB will maintain a small transition team through January to guarantee “a responsible and orderly closeout of operations,” it said in a statement.

On Friday, the CPB also filed a voluntary dismissal of its lawsuit against President Trump for his attempts to remove three of five board members from the organization.

The Trump administration’s cuts to the CPB were the culmination of the president’s months-long effort to defund public broadcasters, which the president has alleged are “biased” against conservatives.

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