For Immediate Release:Thursday, November 18, 2010   

Contact: John Donnelly (202) 225-5211
 
2 Million Votes Cast Via YouCut Called For NPR Spending Cut
 
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA-9) issued the following statement after today’s YouCut vote, which proposed to terminate taxpayer funding of National Public Radio.  The bill was defeated in the U.S. House by a vote of 239 to 171:
 
“While National Public Radio [NPR] has been a source of controversy as of late, it has always been a drain on taxpayer dollars.  As it stands today, NPR annually receives up to $100 million through direct and indirect federal funds from federal agencies like the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Yet, incredibly, NPR’s website claims, ‘We receive no direct federal funding for operations.’
 
“Today, Congress had a chance to verify NPR’s self sufficiency.   Regrettably, the Democrat Majority did not join a united Republican Conference in this exercise of fiscal discipline."
 
“With our national debt racing toward $14 trillion, Congress has no business subsidizing a media outlet like NPR, whose private endowment surpasses $225 million.   When the Republican House Majority convenes next year, we will continue to engage Americans through the YouCut project and work to terminate programs that are needlessly funded by taxpayers.”
 
Background:
This bill would prohibit federal funds from:
-          Going directly to NPR
-          Being used by stations to purchase NPR programming
 
It would not prohibit local stations from receiving federal funds, but would only require that they not use those funds for the purchase of NPR programming. Local stations could still use other non-federal tax dollars to purchase programming.
 
Federal funds that would have gone to NPR directly or indirectly would instead be used for debt reduction.