US public broadcasting entity sues FEMA over emergency alert funding freeze

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to PBS and NPR stations, sued the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday to lift a freeze on funds meant to support the country's emergency alert system.

According to a complaint filed in the Washington, D.C., federal court, FEMA put $38.3 million previously authorized for the alert service's Next Generation Warning System on hold without explanation last month.

The CPB said FEMA's "arbitrary and capricious" hold prevents it from seeking expense reimbursements under a $40 million grant awarded in 2022.

It said that leaves public stations around the country out of pocket for large sums, with more than $1.88 million needing to be reimbursed.

The hold "undermines the emergency alert system relied upon throughout the nation by millions of people whose only access to emergency information is through publicly-issued alerts by public broadcasting stations," the CPB said.

FEMA and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Emergency alerts can warn of bad weather such as flash floods and tornadoes, or provide alerts when children are abducted.

Congress created the CPB in 1967 to support public broadcasting. It received $535 million from the government in the latest fiscal year and distributes more than 70% to more than 1,500 local public radio and TV stations.

Some conservatives have long called to end its funding.

In a November editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk, head of U.S. President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, said DOGE target expenses "unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended," including the $535 million CPB grant.

The case is Corporation for Public Broadcasting v FEMA et al, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, No. 25-00740.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Nia Williams)