House to Vote on NPR Funds
Wall Street Journal reports:
House Republicans stepped up pressure on National Public Radio Wednesday at a meeting they called to discuss a ban on federal funding for NPR programming, setting up a vote on the proposal by the full House of Representatives on Thursday.
"Taxpayers should not be on the hook for something that is widely available in the private market," Rep. Doug Lamborn (R., Colo), author of the bill, said in a statement. "I wish only the best for NPR. Like many Americans, I enjoy much of their programming."
The push comes as NPR begins a search for a new chief executive. Last week, NPR's head of fund raising, Ron Schiller, resigned after a video was posted online of him making disparaging remarks about Republicans and tea-party supporters to people posing as members of a fictitious Muslim group. The next day, Chief Executive Vivian Schiller (no relation to Mr. Schiller) resigned under pressure from NPR's board.
The controversy has intensified the scrutiny from Republican members of Congress, who have long criticized NPR for what they see as a liberal bias, and have called for cuts to its funding.
Democrats largely oppose the Republicans' House bill and say NPR is a valuable resource, especially in rural areas.
The legislation, which was fast-tracked by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and GOP leadership, doesn't cut any money from the federal budget. Rather, it prohibits NPR and its local affiliates from using federal dollars to produce programming or purchase content from other member stations. Affiliate stations could only use taxpayer money for administrative costs, under the bill.
"They'll just have to keep strict accounting," said Mr. Lamborn's spokeswoman.
NPR's member stations receive an average of about 10% of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which received $430 million in federal funding for fiscal 2011.
Executives at NPR have said that without federal money, some stations in smaller communities, where donations are harder to attract, could go dark.
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