A House Appropriations subcommittee has voted to reduce federal financial support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and has proposed eliminating all federal funding of the CPB within two years, starting with a 25 percent reduction in its budget for next year, the Washington Post reports.

If passed, the cuts proposed by the House Appropriations subcommittee on labor, health and human services, and education would represent the most dramatic downsizing of public broadcasting since Congress created the nonprofit CPB in 1967. Federal dollars regranted by CPB are particularly important for small television and radio stations, and account for about 15 percent of the public broadcasting industry's total revenue.

Supporters of public broadcasting interpreted the move as an escalation of a Republican-led campaign against a perceived liberal bias in publicly broadcast programming. "Americans overwhelmingly see public broadcasting as an unbiased information source," said Rep. David Obey (D-WI). "Perhaps that's what the GOP finds so offensive about it. Republican leaders are trying to bring every facet of the federal government under their control.... Now they are trying to put their ideological stamp on public broadcasting."

The Public Broadcasting Service, in particular, drew harsh criticism in December from the Bush administration for a Postcards From Buster episode in which Buster, an animated rabbit, visited two families in Vermont headed by lesbians. And programming on both PBS and National Public Radio has come under fire in recent months from Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the CPB, who has pushed for greater "balance" on the public airwaves. A spokeswoman for NPR, Andi Sporkin, directly blamed Tomlinson for the subcommittee's action. "We've never been sure of Mr. Tomlinson's intent," said Sporkin, "but with this news, we might be seeing his effect."

In a statement, Tomlinson said, "Obviously, we are concerned [by the cuts], and we will be joining with our colleagues in the public broadcasting community to make the case for a higher level of funding as the appropriations measure makes its way through Congress."