Politics

NPR on GOP’s chopping block again on Thursday

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
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National Public Radio will face public scrutiny again on Thursday as House Republicans are set to eliminate the publicly-funded radio network’s taxpayer subsidies. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, will bring a standalone bill that completely defunds NPR to the floor Thursday afternoon. Congressman Doug Lamborn, Colorado Republican, is cosponsoring the bill, HR 1076.

A spokeswoman for Cantor told The Daily Caller that the reasoning behind bringing this defunding bill forward when HR 1, the long-term Continuing Resolution that would fund the government through the end of this fiscal year,  is because it defunds the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. NPR receives federal funding from other agencies and government sources and she said HR 1076 would cut those off.

GOP calls for cutting the flow of tax dollars into NPR renewed last week after conservative James O’Keefe released footage showing senior NPR executives bashing conservatives, saying Jewish people “obviously” control America’s newspapers and admitting that NPR would survive without the taxpayer money.

Shurid Sen, a spokesman for Rules Committee Democrats, said that the GOP’s recently renewed calls for cutting the taxpayer money out of NPR’s budget is a “reactionary response to the O’Keefe video.”

In a statement, Lamborn said his bill is, “an exciting and significant step forward in the ongoing effort to protect taxpayer dollars from supporting programs that are fully capable of standing on their own. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for something that is widely available in the private market.”

Lamborn said he does enjoy NPR’s programming, though, and said he thinks NPR will survive without taxpayer money.

“I wish only the best for NPR. Like many Americans, I enjoy much of their programming,” he said. “I believe that they can survive, even thrive, in the free market without the crutch of government subsidies.”