After Trump and Congress spending cuts, public media stations wait on money for emergency alerts

Source: AP

Updated 8:21 PM EDT, August 25, 2025


Warning: This may be an actual emergency — as far as emergencies about emergencies go, at least. The recently defunded nonprofit corporation that distributed federal money to public media stations across the United States is warning of another casualty when it shuts down next month: the resilience of the nation’s emergency alert systems.

In 2022, Congress created the Next Generation Warning System grant program, meant to help stations in rural, tribal and otherwise underserved communities repair and improve the warning systems that tell people about evacuation orders, Amber alerts, tornado warnings, and more.

It authorized $136 million over three years for the program. But CPB, which manages the grant money, is shutting down on Sept. 30 after Congress and President Donald Trump defunded it in July.

That could leave unspent millions in grant dollars that were awarded but not yet paid to stations, imperiling dozens of projects meant to save lives in emergencies. The need for robust and redundant warning systems was made tragically clear in July when Texas floods killed at least 136 people, many in areas with spotty cellphone reception and no siren systems.


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-fema-cpb-npr-public-radio-emergency-alerts-warning-systems-99a5a37b6a62e0e01b9ee99b39cfe457