How much federal funding does the Corporation for Public Broadcasting receive annually?
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Executive summary
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) received roughly a half‑billion dollars in federal appropriations each year in recent practice, with CPB reporting a FY2025 federal appropriation of about $535 million plus modest interest income (reported as $10 million) that made up nearly the entirety of its operating budget [1] [2]. Many news accounts round that figure to “about $500 million” when describing the annual federal support that Congress provided to CPB and which was later rescinded [3] [4].
1. What “annual federal funding” means in CPB’s case
CPB’s operating budget historically was composed almost entirely of a single annual appropriation from Congress and some interest earnings, with statutory limits keeping administrative spending low (no more than 5%) and a large share required to flow to stations [1] [2]. The agency itself and Congressional backgrounders describe that appropriation as the principal — and for many local stations the largest — federal support stream for public radio and television [2] [5].
2. The headline number: about $500 million a year
Contemporary reporting and CPB’s own documentation converge on an annual federal appropriation in the neighborhood of $500 million; for fiscal year 2025 CPB’s operating budget specifically included a $535 million federal appropriation and $10 million in interest revenue, a sum that news outlets and analysts commonly summarized as “roughly $500 million per year” [1] [3] [2]. Major outlets framed Congress’s decision to rescind that appropriation as stripping “more than $500 million” in annual funding from CPB [3].
3. How that money was used and who received it
By statute and CPB practice, more than 70–95% of the federal appropriation was distributed to local stations, content development, community services, and other station/system needs while CPB itself was limited in administrative spending (statutorily under 5% and CPB materials citing 70%+ to local stations and 95% to content/community needs in various descriptions) [2]. Reporting emphasized that the appropriation functioned primarily as a conduit to roughly 1,500 locally owned public radio and TV stations, including entities in the PBS and NPR systems [1] [4].
4. Variations in reporting and rounding
Different outlets and documents use slightly different framings — some cite the round figure “$500 million,” others note “more than $500 million” or the $535 million FY2025 figure — but the underlying point is consistent: federal appropriations to CPB were roughly half a billion dollars annually and were crucial to many local stations’ budgets [3] [1] [2]. CPB’s own financial pages and the Congressional Research Service background make clear that the appropriation was the dominant line item in CPB’s budget [2] [5].
5. What changed in 2025 and why the figure matters now
In 2025 Congress rescinded advance appropriations for CPB’s FY2026 and FY2027 funding and Senate appropriators did not restore the money, prompting CPB to announce a wind‑down of operations and prompting widespread reporting about the loss of roughly $500 million per year in federal support [5] [1]. News coverage of CPB’s board vote to dissolve explicitly tied the decision to the loss of that annual federal appropriation, underscoring that the “about $500 million a year” figure was central to policy and operational consequences [3] [6].
6. Limits of the available reporting
The sources provided give a clear, consistent picture of recent appropriations levels (notably the FY2025 $535 million figure) and the political actions that removed that funding; they do not offer a multi‑decade annual series in this set of documents, so statements here are grounded in the cited contemporary figures and coverage rather than an exhaustive historical accounting [1] [2] [5].