Settlement awards NPR roughly $36 million to operate public radio interconnection system
A court settlement reached in Washington will provide National Public Radio with approximately $36 million in grant funding to operate the nation’s public radio interconnection satellite system, according to terms agreed with the federal agency that oversees public broadcasting funding.
The settlement, announced late Monday, resolves part of a legal dispute in which NPR accused the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) of yielding to pressure from President Donald J. Trump to cut NPR’s funding. NPR said CPB improperly moved to strip the organization of access to grant money appropriated by Congress.
On March 25, President Trump told reporters he would “love to” defund NPR and PBS, saying he believed the outlets were biased toward Democrats. NPR sued, alleging the CPB violated its First Amendment free-speech rights and that the president sought to punish the newsroom for the substance of its reporting.
On April 2, the CPB board initially approved a three-year extension of roughly $36 million for NPR to continue operating the Public Radio Satellite System, which NPR has managed since 1985. NPR says CPB subsequently reversed that decision under mounting pressure from the Trump administration and reallocated interconnection funds to an entity that did not exist and was not statutorily authorized to receive them.
CPB response: CPB lawyers have rejected NPR’s claims, arguing the network’s allegations lack factual and legal merit and denying that the corporation retaliated to appease the president.
On May 1, President Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to halt funding for NPR and PBS. The settlement does not resolve a separate lawsuit in which NPR seeks to block any implementation or enforcement of that executive order; U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss is scheduled to preside over another hearing in that case on Dec. 4.
Under the settlement terms, NPR and the CPB agreed that the executive order is unconstitutional and that CPB will not enforce it unless ordered to do so by a court.
Reactions: Katherine Maher, NPR’s president and CEO, called the settlement “a victory for editorial independence and a step toward upholding the First Amendment rights of NPR and the public media system.” Patricia Harrison, CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said the agreement marks “an important moment for public media.”
This settlement restores NPR’s funding to operate the interconnection system while leaving unresolved the broader constitutional challenge to the administration’s efforts to cut public media funding.
