DeMint: Time to End Taxpayer Funding of NPR, PBS Taxpayers Paying Over $400 Million Each Year for Public Broadcasting, Nearly $4 Billion Since 2001

Statement

Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee which oversees the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), announced he will introduce legislation to stop taxpayer subsidies of public radio and television. CPB-funded television and radio programs are distributed through National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

"Once again we find the only free speech liberals support is the speech with which they agree. The incident with Mr. Williams shows that NPR is not concerned about providing the listening public with an honest debate of today's issues, but rather with promoting a one-sided liberal agenda," said Senator DeMint.

"Since 2001, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds programming for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, has received nearly $4 billion in taxpayer money," said DeMint. "The country is over $13 trillion in debt and Congress must find ways to start trimming the federal budget to cut spending. NPR and PBS get about 15 percent of their total budget through federal funding, so these programs should be able to find a way to stand on their own. With record debt and unemployment, there's simply no reason to force taxpayers to subsidize a liberal programming they disagree with."

"We can't keep borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars from China each year to fund public radio and public TV when there are so many choices already in the market for news and entertainment. If CPB is defunded taxpayers will save billions. This is just one of the many cuts Congress should make next year.

"I plan to introduce legislation to defund CPB and force a vote on it as well as other measures to start getting our fiscal house in order," said Senator DeMint.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was incorporated in 1967 as a private nonprofit corporation under the authority of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives virtually all of its funding through federal appropriations. For fiscal year 2010 the CPB received $420 million and for fiscal year 2011 it will be $430 million. Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has grown considerably over the years. In 2001, it received $340 million. In 2011, it will be getting $90 million more than that, $430 million.

List of federal funding for CPB over the years, provided by the Congressional Research Service:

* 2001: $340 million
* 2002: $350 million
* 2003: $362.8 million
* 2004: $377.8 million
* 2005: $386.8 million
* 2006: $396 million
* 2007: $400 million
* 2008: $393 million
* 2009: $400 million
* 2010: $420 million
* 2011: $430 million

Source