President Donald Trump formally asked Congress on June 3 to rescind $9.4 billion in spending lawmakers had previously approved, jeopardizing federal funding for Montana’s public media organizations.
Yellowstone Public Radio in central and eastern Montana, Montana Public Radio in the western half of the state, Montana PBS television network and Bozeman-based alt music station KGLT face a combined $2.6 million shortfall this autumn, the Montana Free Press reports.
Montana PBS receives almost 70% of those funds.
When Trump signed a separate executive order in early May aimed at cutting funding for public media entities, he said they “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’” PBS has since sued the Trump administration over that executive order, as has NPR.
Trump’s total rescission proposal is about $9.4 billion. Roughly 12% of that is the elimination of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Seventy percent of the CPB funding goes directly to local public television and public radio stations across the country, said Aaron Pruitt, director and general manager of Montana PBS.
Montana PBS, which operates five free over-the-air channels, including PBS Kids and 24/7 legislative coverage, also provides an emergency alert service. The station faces a $1.8 million shortfall, which is roughly 20% of its budget.
Trump’s defunding proposal would have a limited impact on national reporting and cause severe damage for local stations, Pruitt said, because “PBS and NPR receive very little funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting or from the American people through Congress.”
Ken Siebert, YPR’s general manager, said 8% of the station’s funding comes from a Community Service Grant via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
That amounts to $270,000 annually from CPB. But CPB also provides other services to member stations, including the purchase of music licensing rights, the maintenance of satellite systems and reporting from national journalists, Siebert said.
“If the CPB rescission goes through, the overall station costs to replace everything that CPB does would jump to about $438,000,” Siebert told Montana Free Press. He called that outcome a “significant blow.”
MTPR General Manager Anne Hosler, who also serves as the general manager at KUFM TV, painted public media as a communal space for broadcasting Montana’s culture.
“We’re a unique station in the public radio system because roughly 50% of our programs on our schedule every week are locally produced,” Hosler said. MTPR faces a loss of $353,000, a figure that makes up 11% of their overall budget.
“There are many public stations that are solely news-talk stations or just music, just classical or just jazz. But we like that Montana Public Radio represents the eclectic nature of Montanans,” Hosler said. “We need the news, we love the music, we enjoy all these cultural programs and we try to represent that in our program schedule every week here on Montana Public Radio.”
For this story, MTFP requested interviews with the four members of Montana’s congressional delegation. Spokespeople offered statements or pointed to social media posts in response.
Republican Sen. Steve Daines’ spokesperson did not directly endorse or oppose the cuts, but did cite the value of local media. In an email, his Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director Matt Lloyd wrote that the senator “believes Montana’s local media is important to the Treasure State and will monitor any proposed changes to funding.”
Montana’s two elected officials in the House of Representatives said they supported the rescission proposal.
“There are far better uses of taxpayer dollars than subsidizing news outlets,” Garrett Brown, press secretary for Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, wrote to MTFP.
Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Downing endorsed the rescission proposal. On X, the representative identified it as part of delivering on Republicans’ promise to “eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in government.” The post did not elaborate on how that related to public media.
“This is what the voters sent us here to do. Time to honor the mandate,” Downing wrote.
In response to requests for comments on Trump’s rescission proposal, Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy’s spokesperson provided a statement on “reckless spending” that did not mention public media nor the rescission package.
Pruitt, along with Hosler and Siebert, declined to offer specifics on what they would have to cut at their stations if Congress approves the rescission.
“They would be such difficult decisions that I hesitate to even go into details,” Pruitt said.
Montana’s public media outlets also receive institutional support, including money from state universities and donations from viewers and listeners. Based on the figures provided by public media outlets, roughly 16% of the organizations’ total funding is from CPB.
While Trump’s May 2 executive order cutting funding for public media is now being challenged in court, Congress’s approval of the rescission package would leave little recourse for public media organizations.
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press at montanafreepress.org.
