Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shut down after federal funding cuts
ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced Friday that it will begin a “wind-down of its operations” and cut a majority of its jobs by the end of September following Congress’ vote earlier this month to cut $1.1 billion in its federal funding.
CPB said it told its employees on Friday that the majority of staff positions will be cut by Sept. 30, with only a small transition team remaining through January 2026 to ensure “a responsible and orderly closeout of operations.”
“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a news release. “CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.”
CPB’s shuttering comes after Republicans passed a package earlier this month, which included zeroing out two years’ worth of funding — $1.1 billion — for the CBP. The move was a part of President Donald Trump’s request to claw back $9 billion from the federal budget.
CPB provides grants to local radio and television stations across the country, as well as the producers of well-known PBS and NPR programs.
CPB said it will work to provide regular updates to stations and employees as it ends operations.
Trump repeatedly called on Congress to pull funding for CPB. As Congress considered the package, Trump threatened to withhold his support for any Republican who voted against it.
“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions [sic] Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together. Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote on his social media channel on July 10.
(WASHINGTON) — Senators will be briefed by law enforcement on Tuesday on safety and security after the murder of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and the wounding of another and his wife on Saturday.
House Republicans held a conference call, which was described as “tense,” on Saturday with the House sergeant at arms and U.S. Capitol Police to discuss their concerns, multiple sources familiar with the call told ABC News. Several Republicans said on the one-hour call that they feel unsafe in their home districts and want more protection, sources said.
The key source of contention in particular was the request of police outside their homes at all times and law enforcement authorities saying they need more funding from Congress to provide that.
Senators will be briefed by the Senate sergeant at arms and Capitol Police on Tuesday morning, two sources familiar told ABC News, after it was requested by Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
House Democrats are expected to have a similar call in the coming days. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement Saturday that he asked the sergeant at arms and Capitol Police to “ensure the safety” of the Minnesota delegation and members of Congress “across the country.”
While House and Senate leadership are provided with a security detail, rank-and-file members are not routinely protected unless there is a specific threat.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar told ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday that political violence is a “rampant problem.” Fellow Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith told NBC News on Sunday, “I don’t want to think that I have to a personal security detail everywhere I go, but I think we really have to look at the situation that we’re in.
“This is no way for our government to work when people, any number of us, feel this kind of threat,” she said.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz said he might force a vote on a “secret session” in the House to discuss security and so that “members can handle this ourselves.”
Vance Boelter, 57, faces multiple federal charges in the killing of Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and wounding Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in “political assassinations,” acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph Thompson said Monday.
In a 20-page affidavit, prosecutors outlined how they say Boelter “embarked on a planned campaign of stalking and violence, designed to inflict fear, injure and kill members of the Minnesota state legislature and their families.” He allegedly had firearms and a list of 45 elected officials, “mostly or all Democrats,” according to prosecutors. Authorities say Boelter traveled to the homes of at least four public officials during the early morning hours of Saturday before the killings.
The number of threats and “concerning statements” against members of Congress, their families and staffs has risen for the past two years, according to Capitol Police, which pointed out that threats tend to increase during election years. The Capitol Police’s Threat Assessment Section investigated 9,474 threats and statements in 2024 and 8,008. It investigated 3,939 cases in 2017.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Democrats on Friday traveled to California and Illinois for meetings with Democratic governors who have criticized Republicans’ plans to redraw the Texas congressional map to protect the GOP House majority.
The day of meetings with Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois comes as Texas Democrats are weighing a walkout from the ongoing special legislative session where redistricting could be considered in Austin – in a bid to obstruct and delay the efforts.
“They’re changing the rules in the middle of the game… this is cheating,” Pritzker said on Friday of the GOP-led effort in Texas. “Everything is on the table.”
Texas state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, told ABC News she was hoping to receive guidance on how to navigate the redistricting situation from Newsom, who has frequently sparred with the Trump administration.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, proclaiming a special legislative session that focused largely on flood relief, included redistricting on the agenda “in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”
In a letter earlier this month, the Trump Justice Department told Texas that four majority minority districts represented by Democrats needed to be redrawn, citing a recent federal court decision and arguing they were now “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.”
President Donald Trump has rubber-stamped the Texas effort, saying he wants his party to pick up five seats if Texas redraws its congressional maps. (States redo their maps every decade with new Census data, and rarely attempt to do so absent a court order mid-decade.)
Taken with Republican-led redistricting efforts in Ohio and other GOP-controlled states, the changes to Texas’ map could help Republicans insulate their fragile House majority from the historic midterm backlash presidents traditionally face from voters.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday suggested his state could revisit its map, which Republicans remade after the 2020 Census, because, in part, of “the way the population has shifted around Florida just since the census was done in 2020 — I think the state is malapportioned.”
In response, Democratic leaders in states like California, Illinois and New Jersey have raised the possibility of revisiting their maps if Texas moves forward, though some states face more legal and constitutional restrictions than Texas to do so.
While there has been speculation that Texas Democrats could interrupt the special session by walking out or breaking quorum, the travels on Friday do not break quorum and members are not framing it as a walkout.
In the state House, Democrats would need 51 members to agree to break quorum, and they’d all risk fines for doing so. The effort, which Democrats have attempted in the past, would be unlikely to do more than delay Republicans’ efforts to redraw the maps.
“I am more than willing to participate in a quorum break,” State Rep. Gina Hinojosa told ABC News on Friday while cautioning that discussion of one is premature.
Some Democrats, who for years have advocated for nonpartisan redistricting, say the party should respond in kind to GOP efforts.
“I think one of the things we can say while maintaining a reform principle is that we believe in an independent commission and independent redistricting, but that should only kick in when Texas agrees to it, or when Florida agrees to it,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
The chair of the Texas redistricting committee, Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut, said during a Thursday hearing that “it is prudent and proper” for the committee to deal with items the governor put on the agenda, and that “we have no plans to change any particular district.”
Others are waiting to see if Texas actually moves forward with changes to its map.
“We have to think about what should our response be, and how do we make sure that we have a response that’s actually meeting voters with what they’re hoping for, instead of actually making a system worse for voters,” Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., told ABC News.
Experts have told ABC News that either party could risk backlash from voters or in court, depending on how they redraw their state maps. And efforts to make Democrat-held districts in Texas more friendly to GOP pickup could weaken Republicans’ hold on neighboring red districts.
(WASHINGTON) — Elon Musk’s grievances with the Trump administration extend beyond the level of spending in the president’s signature bill, sources tell ABC News.
Multiple people who have spoken to the president and Musk described a widening rift on a range of recent moves by the administration.
Musk has privately expressed frustration about a portion of the spending bill that would cut the electric vehicle tax credit, multiple people who have spoken with the billionaire said.
After the November election, Musk called for ending the tax credit, but more recently, his company, Tesla, has become a vocal opponent of removing the provision.
“Abruptly ending the energy tax credits would threaten America’s energy independence and the reliability of our grid,” the company posted on social media.
Musk had also grown increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration striking artificial intelligence deals with his competitor OpenAI, sources tell ABC News.
Behind the scenes, Musk raised objections about a deal that did not include his AI start-up company, but it ultimately moved forward, sources said.
Another source of tension: the withdrawal of Musk ally Jared Isaacman’s nomination as NASA administrator over the weekend, according to sources who stated that Musk was deeply disappointed by the move.
There have also been deep disagreements on trade policy. In April, Musk called trade advisor Peter Navarro a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” in a series of posts on X.
On Tuesday, Musk took to X to lambaste the funding bill to advance Trump’s legislative agenda, calling it a “disgusting abomination.” He continued to attack the bill in a flurry of X posts Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
“Mammoth spending bills are bankrupting America! ENOUGH,” Musk wrote in one post.
The White House declined to comment. A representative for Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Some of these details were first reported by Axios.
