PBS and NPR Have Faced Pressure From Congress Before

Calls to eliminate government funding for NPR and PBS may have reached a peak, but the two networks have been living under that threat for decades.

Congressional Republicans have periodically attempted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the government-backed organization that administers hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding directed to public broadcasters across the United States.

As House speaker, Newt Gingrich championed one such movement in the 1990s, and Congress overrode cuts proposed by President George W. Bush each year he was in office. President Trump, in a question-and-answer session on Tuesday, reiterated his desire to see PBS and NPR defunded.

Congress has rejected those attempts, in part, because public media programs like “Sesame Street” and “All Things Considered” have been popular with some listeners and viewers in their districts. Some Republican legislators, such as Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have