Trump budget takes aim at PBS funding

US president Donald Trump is planning to eliminate funding for public broadcasting in the US, which supports channels including PBS, in his first budget.

PBS was the original home of Sesame Street

The government subsidy of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees public service broadcasting (PSB) in the US, accounts for anywhere up to 25% of the budget of smaller PSB channels, although the subsidy for the main PBS channel amounts to only 7% of its overall budget.

It has long been a target for Republicans looking to cut back on expenditure, with US$465m spent on it in 2016.

Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, confirmed reports that all federal involvement in PSB will be ended in the proposed budget for 2018, which is due for release at 07.00 ET today.

The budget proposals will have to pass through the House of Representatives and Senate before being ratified, and are likely to have numerous amendments and alterations made during that process. Trump will need votes from Democrats, staunch supporters of PSB, to pass the proposals.

PBS is best known as the US home of Downton Abbey and for its long-running kids’ series Sesame Street, although premium cablenet HBO took first-run rights to that show in a surprise deal in 2015.

A previous attempt by Republicans to end the funding in the mid 1990s was unsuccessful.