March 17, 2011, 3:38 pm

House Votes to Cut Off Money for NPR

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

The House voted on Thursday to cut off funding for National Public Radio, with Democrats and Republicans fiercely divided over both the content of the bill and the manner in which it was brought to the floor.
Under the measure, sponsored by Representative Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado, stations could not buy programming from NPR or any other source using the $22 million the stations receive from the Treasury for that purpose. Local NPR stations would be able to use federal funds for operating expenses, but not content.
“The time has come for us to claw back this money,” said Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee.
This was the second time that the House has moved to defund NPR; a rider to take away its public monies was attached to a short-term spending bill passed last month by the House, but the measure ultimately failed in the Senate. Thursday’s measure, which House Republicans rushed to the floor before a one-week recess begins, passed 228 to 192, with a handful of Republicans voting no.
The bill is almost certain to fail in the Senate, should it even reach the floor there. In that chamber, which is controlled by Democrats, members of both parties have expressed skepticism about cutting off NPR because it remains popular among many of their constituents.
The organization, in the cross hairs of Republican lawmakers for years, came under intense fire recently with the release of a video that showed one of its fund-raising executives criticizing members of the Tea Party. Last year, NPR made headlines over the hasty firing of the commentator Juan Williams, for remarks he made on Fox News about fearing Muslims at airports.
Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican majority leader, said the revelations of the video, made by a conservative activist who posed as a potential NPR donor, “makes clear that taxpayer dollars should no longer be appropriated to NPR.”
Democrats said politics, not fiscal austerity, drove the bill. “Why are we wasting valuable floor time on an ideological battle?” said Representative Louise Slaughter of New York.
The House debated the bill, and the procedure by which it was brought to the floor, for several hours Thursday, with Republicans arguing that NPR should be able to sustain itself through private donations, and Democrats countering that the cut would have a negligible impact on debt reduction or the nation’s fiscal problems. They further accused Republicans of ignoring joblessness to instead attack “Car Talk,” an NPR show.
Mr. Lamborn said that while he personally enjoyed NPR, “I have long believed it can stand on its own.” He added in a speech on the floor: “I want NPR to grow on its own, I want to see it thrive. Just remove taxpayers from the equation.”
Representative Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, said he saluted Republicans for trying to cut the federal budget, but added: “Why have a proposal that destroys institutions? Vermont Public Radio is the link between 251 towns, cities and villages in the state of Vermont. Farmers listen to it in their barns, parents listen to it on their way to bringing their kids to school, people at work listen to it for the weather reports and it welds together the political discussion in the state of Vermont, which is vibrant, which is varied, which has people with different points of view having a common reference point.”
Democrats also objected to the manner in which the bill was brought to the floor. On Wednesday, the House Rules Committee held an emergency hearing to expedite the bill, and it went to the floor under a so-called closed rule, which does not allow for amendments, counter to the promise of more openness made by Speaker John Boehner.
Republicans pointed out that the seven-page bill had already been debated when the larger spending bill was considered, and that the stand-alone measure was expedited so that the Republican-controlled House could be clear on its financing position.
During parliamentary inquiry into how much time was required to pass between the filing of the bill and the vote, there was booing, and Representative Ted Poe, who was presiding over the House floor, was forced to slam his gavel.
Before the vote, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called on supporters for money. In a fund-raising e-mail on Wednesday, the committee chairman, Steve Israel, wrote: “We can’t let this outrage go unchallenged. Republicans and their right-wing media backers are gearing up for this fight, and they’re hoping grass-roots Democrats like you will stay on the sidelines.”

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 17, 2011
An earlier version of this post misstated the timing of the firing of Juan Williams as "earlier this year."
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 17, 2011
An earlier version of this post misstated Representative Peter Welch's surname as Welsh.