Via YouCut, Americans Target Taxpayer Funding for NPR
Democrats Again Say “No” to Common Sense Spending Cut
Washington,
Nov 18 -
Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement after House Democrats defeated the latest YouCut proposal to terminate federal funding of NPR. The proposal, originally introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) through the RSC Sunset Caucus, could potentially save tens of millions of dollars.
“In light of Juan Williams’ recent firing, it is hard to see how anyone can claim that NPR does not have a liberal bias,” said Chairman Price. “While the network has the right to present whatever point of view its executives wish, taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize it. Without taxpayer funding, NPR will simply compete for listeners on a level playing field, just like any other media organization. Democrats may have defeated our money-saving effort today, but the incoming Republican majority will continue to do the people’s work and push for common sense spending cuts.”
NOTE: NPR receives direct government grants from various federal agencies, including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Over the past two years this direct funding has totaled approximately $9 million. NPR also receives taxpayer funds indirectly. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting makes grants to public radio stations. While some of these grants can be used for any purpose, some can only be used to acquire and produce programming. Often this programming is purchased from NPR. Indeed programming fees and dues paid by local public radio stations to NPR accounts for approximately 40% of NPR's budget or about $65 million last year. A portion of these funds were originally federal tax dollars provided to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to the local public radio stations.
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