CPB said Friday it has begun an “orderly wind-down of its operations,” given enactment of the 2025 Rescissions Act to claw back $1.1 billion of its advance funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027 and the Senate Appropriations Committee’s advancement Thursday of its FY26 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee spending bill, which didn’t allocate money to the public broadcasting entity (see 2507310062). Meanwhile, the FCC didn’t comment on whether the Enforcement Bureau will continue investigating PBS and NPR stations for possible violations of underwriting rules (see 2501300065) after the commission released a set of April letters from Chairman Brendan Carr to House lawmakers indicating that the probe “remains ongoing.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., led the refiling Thursday of the NOAA Weather Radio Modernization Act, as expected (see 2507300029). The bill, which the Senate approved by unanimous consent in 2023, would require NOAA to upgrade infrastructure to improve reliable transmission of emergency alerts and reduce the system’s use of copper wire transmissions (see 2312190081). Senate Homeland Security Committee ranking member Gary Peters, D-Mich., signed on as a co-sponsor, along with three other Commerce members: Jerry Moran, R-Kan.; Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 25-3 Thursday to advance the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s FY 2026 funding bill without any CPB allotment. The move underscored stakeholders’ consensus that it will be very difficult for public broadcasting advocates to restore that funding after Congress narrowly agreed in mid-July to claw back all $1.1 billion of CPB’s advance money for FY26 and FY27 via the 2025 Rescissions Act (see 2507280050). Most Senate Appropriations Democrats voted for the FY26 measure, but LHHS ranking member Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and other party-affiliated members indicated that they haven’t given up on bringing CPB funding back before FY25 ends Oct. 1.
CTIA generally supports the rule changes proposed for the disaster information reporting system (DIRS) and other emergency alert systems, it told the FCC in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-346. The NPRM is set for a vote at the agency's Aug. 7 open meeting (see 2507170048). “CTIA and its member companies support the FCC’s efforts to ensure that public safety stakeholders have actionable information to maintain critical services, including 911 and 988,” the group said. In deciding which information is most usable, “the Commission should consider that there is a growing consensus among industry and public safety stakeholders that the current framework for outage notifications, including those notifications to 911 and 988 special facilities in areas where DIRS has been activated, is leading to outage notification fatigue."
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Wednesday that he and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., “will soon introduce together legislation to modernize NOAA Weather Radio warning systems.” Lobbyists told us the measure is likely to be identical to the NOAA Weather Radio Modernization Act filed by Cruz and then-Chair Cantwell during the last Congress. That bill, which the Senate approved by unanimous consent in 2023, would have required NOAA to upgrade infrastructure to improve reliable transmission of emergency alerts and reduce the system’s use of copper wire transmissions (see 2312190081). It also would have required increasing NOAA Weather Radio coverage to 98-99% of the U.S. population, including more rural areas.
The House was all but certain to sign off Thursday night on a revised version of its 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4) retaining a clawback of $1.1 billion in advance CPB funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027 that the Senate passed 51-48 early that morning, as expected (see 2507160077). Senate passage of HR-4 followed several more unsuccessful bids to strip out the CPB language or dramatically reduce the amount of funding the measure rescinded. The Senate turned back several other Democratic-led CPB amendments Wednesday.
The FCC posted on Thursday the drafts for all the items teed up for votes at the commission’s Aug. 7 open meeting. Most have a deregulatory bent.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Wednesday unveiled a full agenda for the Aug. 7 open meeting, leading off with proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Also included are draft orders that Carr said were aimed at streamlining submarine cable licensing and satellite and earth station licensing. As will be true for the July meeting, cutting regulation will be a priority in August (see 2507030049).
The Senate was on track Wednesday to pass a revised version of the 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4) that retains language to claw back $1.1 billion in advance CPB funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027, despite opposition from Democrats and a handful of Republicans. Public broadcasting supporters continued pressing for some Republicans who voted Tuesday night to clear procedural hurdles for bringing HR-4 to the floor to vote against passing the measure. Senators were voting Wednesday afternoon on Democrats’ amendments to HR-4 after rejecting bids to jettison the CPB defunding language.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday she’s considering filing an amendment to the House-passed 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4) that would strike its proposed clawback of $1.1 billion in advance FY 2026 and FY 2027 funding for CPB. Public broadcasting supporters and opponents were gearing up Thursday for a showdown over the rescissions bid ahead of a potential Tuesday initial vote to begin work on an expected revised version of the measure. Meanwhile, a pair of Senate Commerce Republicans who are also on the Appropriations Committee indicated that they're still negotiating to address their concerns about how CPB defunding could affect rural public broadcasters.