PBS informed 34 employees on Thursday that they would be laid off as part of a larger downsizing effort that has already resulted in the elimination of 100 jobs in recent months. The cuts were triggered in part by the Trump administration’s rescission package, which eliminated more than $1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasting.
“Due to a loss of federal funding, PBS has eliminated nearly 100 positions in recent months, including 34 valued PBS employees who were notified yesterday that their employment will end. In this unprecedented situation, we remain focused on what is most important: ensuring that our member stations can provide quality content and services to communities across America,” a PBS spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday.
Republicans in the Senate and House narrowly passed the rescissions package in July, removing more than $1 billion in federal broadcast funding for the fiscal year.
Trump’s multibillion-dollar clawback package targeted what he called “woke” spending, such as foreign aid programs and federal support for NPR and PBS, as Republicans finally withdrew federal funding from public news organizations, a move advocates said was long overdue.
The package blocked $8 billion in funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and $1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR.
“Over the last weeks, we have been working through how best to manage the impact of the loss of federal funding,” CEO Paula Kerger wrote to station managers, according to NPR.
“Just like every single public media organization in the country, we are being forced to make hard choices,” she told me. “While we have seen good progress from our Foundation, including a significant grant from a major donor to help support the ‘NewsHour’ and ‘Kids’ content, we recognized that we need to make significant changes in our staffing and operations.”
All areas of PBS are expected to be impacted when federal funding for public broadcasting expires on October 1.
While many Trump supporters applauded the move, liberal commentators, lawmakers, and journalists from PBS and NPR were sharply critical.
