Illinois Public Media is facing a $1.5 million funding cut after Congress voted early Friday to eliminate all federal support for public broadcasting.
The House passed the $9 billion rescissions package just after 1 a.m. Friday in a 216-213 vote, following Senate passage late Thursday evening. The measure eliminates $1.1 billion in previously allocated funds to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, effectively zeroing out all federal support for NPR, PBS and more than 1,500 local stations over the next two years.
The package also includes nearly $8 billion in cuts to foreign aid programs, including funding for global disaster relief, refugee support and economic development initiatives. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming days.
IPM operates WILL-AM, WILL-FM, WILL-TV, Illinois Soul FM, the IPM Newsroom and Illinois Student Newsroom through the University’s College of Media and has served East Central Illinois for more than 100 years. The organization said the loss of funding will force difficult decisions about programming, staff and services.
“This is, without question, a significant development that will lead to some very difficult choices regarding our radio programs and services,” said IPM Executive Director Moss Bresnahan in a press release Friday. “We want to be fully transparent with our neighbors and friends about what this means.”
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The IPM management team “has been proactively making contingency plans for this possibility,” according to the press release, but said it was “too soon to announce any local or national radio programming changes.”
Earlier this year, IPM launched a donation campaign and encouraged the community to support the “Protect My Public Media” political action network, but still projects a remaining shortfall of more than $1 million “for the days and years ahead.”
While NPR and PBS national offices receive relatively little direct funding from CPB, local stations rely heavily on it to stay on the air — particularly in rural and underserved regions. The rescission eliminates CPB’s entire appropriation for the next two years, which totaled about $525 million annually.
National leaders in public media say the effects will ripple across the country. NPR CEO Katherine Maher called the move “an unwarranted dismantling of beloved local civic institutions.” PBS President Paula Kerger warned it would be “especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas.”
A Harris Poll conducted earlier this month found that 66% of Americans support federal funding for public broadcasting, including 58% of Republicans and 77% of Democrats.
