Congress Gets Ready to Defund NPR

"We're running annual deficits of over a trillion dollars," says Rep. Doug Lamborn, the Colorado Republican who has written a new bill to defund NPR. "With 500 cable TV channels, Internet on people's cell phones, satellite radio, we have so many sources of media that we don't need a government-subsidized source of media."

Lamborn introduced an NPR-defunding bill last year but couldn't get much support. That changed in October when NPR fired Williams for confessing that he sometimes gets nervous when people in Muslim garb board airplanes. "

A well-connected House GOP aide says the bill is "not a top priority, like repealing Obamacare," but that its prospects for passage are "pretty good." In the Senate, Democrats would likely filibuster, and one GOP source says it would be "tough to get 60 votes" to overcome Democratic opposition. Still, things could change -- they did after the Williams controversy -- and Lamborn is determined to keep trying for as long as it takes.