An analysis of HR 1076, the bill to prohibit federal funding for National Public Radio that won House approval on a March 17 party line vote, details which congressional districts have the most on the line if the legislation is enacted.
Alaska Republican Don Young, whose at-large district encompasses 26 public radio stations, has the most at stake — more than $5 million in CPB grants from 2009. Young was one of 11 members of Congress, seven of whom were Democrats, who did not vote on the bill, according to the official tally of the roll call.
Minority staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee crunched the numbers to assess the legislation’s impact and found that 414 stations with listeners in 280 congressional districts would be affected. These stations provide about 7,800 jobs, according to the analysis.
HR 1076 won’t actually cut off CPB funding to local public radio stations, but it would prohibit these stations from spending any federal dollars on NPR dues or other national programming. It also prohibits NPR itself from receiving federal grants and eliminates CPB’s grant programs backing national services for minority audiences, such as Radio Bilingüe and Native Voice One networks, and special initiatives such as the StoryCorps oral history project, which produces regular features for NPR’s Morning Edition.
Three of the Republican lawmakers who crossed party lines to vote against the measure represent districts that received six-figure sums of federal pubcasting aid in 2009. Reps. Patrick Tiberi of Ohio, whose two local stations qualified for nearly $472,000 in CPB aid; David Reichert of Washington State, with one CPB grantee receiving more than $126,000; and Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, also with one station receiving nearly $118,000. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, the one GOP member who voted “present,” represents a district with two pubradio stations backed by CPB grants that totaled more than $172,000.
Correction: An earlier version of this post erroneously reported that Alaska’s Rep. Don Young voted for HR 1076.