If the Republican-led House has its way, federal funds for all public broadcasters will soon end. The House Rules Committee recently voted 6-5 to defund NPR. The bill will now move to the floor for debate. At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. That’s the private non-profit entity that allocates federal funds to public radio and TV stations across the country. At WBEZ about six percent of the annual funding is from the CPB.

Eight Forty-Eight spoke to Ron Grossman, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, about why NPR should be defunded. He wrote an article with his argument, “Time to pay for your own NPR”.

Eight Forty-Eight also reached out to four of Illinois’ Republican Congressman to join the discussion. None of them were available.

A correction has been made to this story.

An earlier version of this story misstated that Congress was Republican-led. Only the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republican Party.