WASHINGTON – House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) issued the following statement today after the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1076, a bill that, if enacted, would prohibit federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) as a way to reduce job-destroying spending.

“Republicans fully understand that to bolster job growth today and avert national bankruptcy tomorrow, the federal government must stop spending money that it doesn’t have. This especially applies to government programs that are particularly defective or wasteful. That is why the House voted today to ban federal funding for National Public Radio.

“Government has no business in the news business. Even NPR’s own former fundraising executive recently admitted that the organization ‘would be better off in the long run without federal funding.’

“NPR is widely recognized as a partisan media outlet that has long served as a platform for decidedly left-leaning programming and commentary.  This is a highly objectionable trait for an organization that is funded by American taxpayers.  Thanks to today’s House vote, we are one step closer to ensuring that will no longer be the case.

“America’s spending-driven debt crisis demands serious leadership that will take action to put the nation back on a fiscally sustainable course for the future.  At a time when we are borrowing 42 cents on every dollar, much of it from the Chinese, today’s vote to defund NPR is a small but significant step to ending Washington’s culture of spending so that economic confidence can be restored and Americans can go back to work.”

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