The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which helps fund National Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio and Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Service (PBS-TV), announced today that it will shut down after Republicans, including the western slope’s CD-3 House Representative Jeff Hurd, voted in favor of the Trump-backed rescissions bill to claw back all of its federal funding. The funding Hurd and his fellow Republicans voted to eliminate had already been appropriated for CPB by Congress.
CPB wrote on its Facebook page:
“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,” said CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison.
CPB announced today that it will begin an orderly wind-down of its operations following the passage of a federal rescissions package and the release of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) appropriations bill, which excludes funding for CPB for the first time in more than five decades.”
The move ends five decades of free, high quality public broadcasting to Americans.
CPB and NPR have long brought Americans news and information shows like Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Fresh Air, BBC World News, educational shows like NOVA and kids’ educational TV shows like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. The radio shows were heard locally in Grand Junction on KPRN 89.5 FM.
CPB helped support over 1,500 locally-managed and operated public TV and radio stations nationwide, and has supported locally relevant journalism, educational content, emergency communications, cultural programming, and essential services for Americans in every community. 
Many of these stations will be forced to close in the wake of Republicans’ defunding of CPB.
CPB said in a press release today that it will terminate the majority of its staff positions at the end of its fiscal year on September 30, 2025, and wind down operations nationally.
CD-3 House Representative Jeff Hurd to cut $1.1 billion in funding for CPB on June 12, although none of the press releases on his official House web page nor any of his social media posts discuss how he voted on the rescissions package.
Email your thoughts to Rep. Hurd at this link, or call him at his Washington D.C. office at (202) 225-4676 during business hours Eastern Time.
Well we wouldn’t want any illegals learning anything for free.
Information and education are the natural enemies of the GOP.