NPR urges its stations to lobby members of Congress as Trump admin seeks to pull federal funding
NPR is urging its member stations to contact their members of Congress as the Trump administration ramps up its efforts to pull federal funding from public broadcasting. A memo sent Monday was in response to reports of the White House’s plan to send its rescissions package to Capitol Hill this week and not as anticipated on April 28 and that a vote could be held the week of May 5.“In preparation, we are moving up the timelines for all stakeholder communications,” the memo first obtained by The New York Times read.“NPR’s Policy and Representation team has drafted new templates for station and grasstops stakeholder activation.
We ask for a deadline of May 2 for those letters to be delivered to lawmakers.Engage your Board members, Community Advisory Board, station volunteers, major supporters, community partners, business leaders, and emergency officials who work with your station and ask them to communicate to Congress their opposition to rescission and support for your station.”NPR asked its stations to inform the national headquarters when letters are sent out to lawmakers and whether the stations receive responses. “We are coordinating with Protect My Public Media and will provide more details soon on activating PMPM advocates.
On-air scripts are currently available through the PMPM Partner Portal, if you would like to begin pre-recording messages,” NPR wrote. “We strongly urge you to communicate and meet with your Members of Congress this week, since they are likely still in your district during the current recess,” the memo continued. NPR did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.Earlier this month, President Donald Trump’s budget director, Russ Vought, drafted a memo asking GOP lawmakers to slash $1.1 billion that was allotted to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), as well as $8.3 billion that was allotted to USAID.“Since day one, the Trump Administration has targeted waste, fraud, and abus...