The U.S. House approved the Trump administration’s $9 billion rescission package Friday morning in a 216-to-213 vote. The U.S. Senate approved the package 51-48 Thursday.
The package claws back previously allocated funds, including $7 billion in foreign aid and $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Of the CPB funding, $770 million would have gone directly to local stations.
NPR, PBS and their roughly 1,500 member stations across the U.S. have now lost all federal support.
Including KPCW, there are six independent public TV and NPR member radio stations in Utah, including PBS Utah, Utah Education Network, KUER and Utah Public Radio.
KPCW President and General Manager Juliana Allely said the station is now looking at a cash shortfall of $264,000 for fiscal year 2026 and 2027.
“We're a bit lucky that it's only 14 to 15% of our operating budget,” she said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Friday.
Allely said the cut will “sting,” and she and the board of trustees will have to be creative when budgeting and allocating resources. But the station may be able to identify new revenue streams.
“Already the community is coming out for us,” she said. “You guys have been answering those calls for activation. You've been reaching out to your lawmakers and letting them know about the importance of KPCW and the importance of public media. We so appreciate that effort.”
On its website Friday, NPR member station Utah Public Radio, which covers Logan, Moab, Richfield and Vernal, says it will also lose about 15% of its annual budget, or $200,000 per year.
According to the Utah News Dispatch, PBS Utah is slated to lose about $2 million in funding and KUER would lose about $500,000.
CPB is a private nonprofit founded by Congress in 1967 to provide non-commercial radio, television and emergency alert services to communities across the U.S. In a May executive order, the president called publicly-funded media outdated and alleged neither PBS and CPB “presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
During his monthly news conference broadcast on PBS Utah Thursday, Gov. Spencer Cox said he agrees taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be used for partisanship. However, he worries rural residents and tribal nations will be left without an important resource.
That’s because CPB funding provides infrastructure that delivers emergency alerts to local stations.
“While I agree with the idea and the principle, I worry that the unintended consequence will be the exact opposite, that we'll still have a hyper partisan NPR and and we'll just lose the good things that are actually necessary for our tribal people, for our rural communities, and for our ability to to have important programming like this,” Cox said.
NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement the funding cuts will be felt most by rural stations.
“Supporters of defunding are fixated on NPR and PBS, but in reality the cuts will be felt where these services are needed most,” she said. “Stations in places like West Virginia, and those serving tribal nations, receive more than 50% of their budget from federal funding.”
PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger said in a statement the cuts will impact all of its stations as well, especially smaller stations serving rural areas.
“Many of our stations which provide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts will now be forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” she said.
