Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., on Monday introduced a bill that would end federal funding for NPR and PBS, reports the Washington Examiner.
“We’re spending half a billion dollars a year, 14 and a half billion dollars over time, to give to people at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR and NPS [sic] to participate in opinion journalism, which they’re entitled to do, but they can’t do it on the taxpayer dime. They’re doing it on the taxpayer dime, but they shouldn’t be able to,” Kennedy said on the Senate floor.
The report comes nearly a month after President Donald Trump’s new FCC chair ordered an investigation of NPR and PBS.
“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Chair Brendan Carr wrote at the time the presidents and chief executives of NPR and PBS.
“In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”