Sens. Ernst and Cruz demand details of CPB grant supporting NPR ‘Backstop’ team

Sens. Joni Ernst and Ted Cruz requested Tuesday that CPB share documents related to its $1.9 million grant to NPR for editorial enhancement. 

In a letter sent to CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison, the Republican senators claim that the corporation is “reportedly withholding” some grant money until the network improves its “editorial bias issue.”

CPB’s grant, awarded to NPR in October, supported creation of a “Backstop” team of editors who would provide final review of news stories.

Senate staff have already inquired about details of the grant, according to the letter. CPB staff said the funds would pay for “analyzing qualitative data about the editorial decisions and content NPR produces, guaranteeing NPR produces journalism for a wide audience with a variety of perspectives and voices, and reinforcing the public’s trust in NPR,” the senators wrote in the letter. 

“Unfortunately, NPR is failing to live up to the terms of the Editorial Enhancement Grant to such an extent that CPB is reportedly withholding some of the $1.9 million until NPR improves its editorial bias issue,” they added. 

A CPB spokesperson did not answer Current’s question about withholding some of the grant money, but said CPB will respond to the senators’ inquiry by Monday, the deadline set in their letter. 

Representatives for NPR did not immediately respond to questions from Current. 

In the letter, Ernst and Cruz request a copy of the grant contract and all “submissions, data, analysis, summaries, measurements, or similar documents which CPB has used to evaluate NPR’s compliance with the terms of the Editorial Enhancement Grant.”

In earlier conversations with Senate staff, CPB said that terms of the grant contract prevent them from releasing the agreement, according to the letter. 

“Withholding basic information from Congress about the grants to NPR is unacceptable,” the senators said in their letter. “It raises doubts about CPB’s commitment to transparency and public accountability. Ultimately, this sort of obstruction when faced with a routine congressional oversight request raises concerns about whether Congress can trust CPB to receive taxpayer funds at all, never mind the robust $595 million CPB is requesting for Fiscal Year 2027.”

Sen. Cruz chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which holds oversight of CPB. 

The letter is dated the same day that President Donald Trump sent a rescission package to Congress proposing to claw back CPB’s funding in FY26 and FY27, $535 million in appropriations for each year.

NPR announced the addition of its “Backstop” team in the wake of now-former network editor Uri Berliner’s essay that alleged ideological bias among NPR’s news staff. 

NPR Editor in Chief Edith Chapin told Current last year that Berliner’s essay and the feedback it generated were “a factor” in the editorial changes, which NPR had already been considering for a while. 

“You’ve got to strike when the iron is hot,” Chapin said.