Q&A on NPR's September 26, 2025 filing

Published October 9, 2025 at 9:02 AM EDT

Why does the Executive Order matter to me and my station? Doesn't the order only talk about NPR and PBS?

The Executive Order instructs that no federal funding go directly or indirectly to PBS or NPR.
As long as the EO is the law, any federal agency can set conditions on how stations spend federal funding; stations would not get to make free choices about programming or services.
This is a threat to every station's First Amendment protections of freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press.
If this EO stands, the risks to stations grow. State governments could be emboldened or required to tie public media funding to specific ideological or political viewpoints.
Any source of public funding could be at risk, for every public media entity — station or producer.

Why would NPR sue CPB, how could that possibly help?

This is not a new lawsuit. May 27, 2025, NPR, Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio, and KSUT Public Radio brought an action to challenge the Executive Order.
CPB has been a defendant in NPR's lawsuit challenging the EO from the outset because the EO tells CPB not to fund NPR or PBS and to prohibit member stations from funding NPR and PBS.
The recent motion filed in this suit was prompted by CPB reversing their decision on the PRSS grant because of the EO.
This demonstrated that the EO is effective at getting entities to comply with the EO and restricting First Amendment rights.
NPR made significant efforts to resolve this behind the scenes before the RFP was announced.

Won't voting on PRSS right now just fix all of this?

No. If we vote on who should run PRSS (while the EO litigation is pending), the Executive Order still puts the system at great risk, because all future federal funding could still be subject to the EO.
If stations want to change the manager of PRSS, interconnected stations could take the vote after the judge decides if the EO is unconstitutional.
We anticipate the judge is likely to make his decision before the end of the year, likely before the end of November.

I don't understand what the EO has to do with PRSS.

Normally those two things would not be related. But PRSS is, in part, funded by federal funding via CPB.
CPB reversed its decision to provide PRSS funding to NPR and instead did what the EO demands — stop funding NPR.
There are other, similar precedents. For example, the administration has taken actions to withhold university scientific research funding as a means of applying pressure to otherwise-unrelated liberal arts programs.

How do you know that CPB reversed their decision?

In early 2025, CPB requested that NPR write a 3-year proposal to fund the PRSS for FY26-28 and terrestrial broadcast innovation. After receiving the proposal, the CPB Board approved that 3-year PRSS grant.
Just over a week later, and following a tweet by the President, CPB rescinded that grant and told NPR that it would not fund PRSS if the funding went to NPR.

If CPB had the choice, why didn't they give that money to stations?

NPR does not know why CPB rejected these (or other) options.
According to the Public Broadcasting Act, CPB can fund interconnection by distributing funds to the interconnected stations, or granting funds to the entity selected by those interconnected stations.
NPR recommended that CPB distribute funds directly to stations. NPR also suggested giving the funds to the Public Radio Satellite Trust, whose members are elected by the interconnected stations.
The pressure being applied on CPB through the Administration and the President was significant, and no doubt it weighed heavily on the CPB staff and Board.
NPR regrets having to take this action, and hopes for a swift decision.
We remain optimistic that CPB will join NPR, our co-plaintiffs and PBS in fighting the EO head-on to preserve public media's rights.

Doesn't this put a lot of public media money in jeopardy? What if we lose that money?

No matter what happens in the suit, the money in question will be put toward supporting the public radio system.
A court ruling on the EO will decide if the grant money for satellite interconnection will go to NPR or PMI.
The grant to PMI should include the $35M for satellite interconnection that CPB originally offered NPR, and $22M for other services.
The court will prevent the money from being lost while it is handling the case. The court is expected to rule before the end of the calendar year, and everyone is well-informed of the urgency of CPB's operating status.

Can you promise me that this money will end up supporting public radio and not be lost or taken by the government?

Even if NPR succeeds in this motion, some RFP grant money would go to PMI and some would go to PRSS. If NPR does not succeed, the money will go to PMI. No money goes away.
There is no reason to believe the government will pull this money from CPB's account, and no reason to believe that CPB would simply give that money back to the Treasury rather than put it toward supporting the public radio system.

If NPR doesn't get the money they want, will they stop supporting PRSS?

No. NPR plans to support PRSS at the same level of quality, reliability and service as it has for the past 40 years.
NPR's board has passed a stable FY26 budget that will fund PRSS and not increase PRSS station fees, despite the loss of federal funding.
NPR will also continue to develop the ContentDepot Edge terrestrial distribution service, which will improve D/I services, functionality, and connectivity, while reducing station costs, as it rolls out in operation across the network.

What about the other Network needs?

NPR continues to run and improve all services provided to the Network, this suit is not related at all.
For example: i) NPR continues to support more than 220 sites on the Grove CMS, for NPR Members, joint licensee stations, and some eligible non-Member stations. ii) With PBS, we launched the new music rights management portal on Oct 1 for all PBS, NPR, NFCB, and other covered entities to manage their participation in the public radio music licenses. iii) NPR continues to manage and process music usage reports for all public radio entities each quarter.

Does NPR just want this money for NPR's own strategy, not to support the Network?

No. Funds awarded to NPR for interconnection can only be used to support PRSS; those funds cannot be used by NPR for any other purposes.
Most of NPR's strategy for the coming year is growth and improvement for the whole public media system. None of this planned work is dependent on this motion or on the PRSS money.

Why didn't you tell Member stations about any of this in advance?

The Board and NPR management debated bringing our concerns about PRSS funding to the Network in May 2025, following CPB's D/I funding reversal.
Our primary goal was avoiding any perception of disunity in the public media system as we went into the federal funding vote over the summer, and decided against sharing our concerns publicly.
After the Congressional vote on July 17, 2025, we considered again whether it would make sense to notify the network given that the loss of funding could affect PRSS operational capacity.
CPB publicly stated they did not intend to comply with the EO, so we made the decision that we would continue to try to resolve this issue between our two organizations.
We notified CPB in May of their status in our suit against the administration. When we determined the need to file this most recent motion, it was important that CPB was the first party we notified.

When will we know the result of all of this?

The hearing has been scheduled for October 28.
We expect the court will resolve this before the end of the calendar year, likely by the end of November.