Lawsuit Reveals DOGE Targeted CPB Operations

As the Corporation for Public Broadcasting sues the Trump administration over its attempt to remove three of its board members, the organization revealed that the Department of Government Efficiency also tried to involve itself in CPB operations.

According to court documents filed May 10, CPB leaders rebuffed a request in April from a DOGE representative to assign a team to review the organization. CPB Executive Vice President and General Counsel Evan Slavitt cited federal law that explicitly defines CPB as separate from any executive branch authority.

“Accordingly, neither DOGE, the [General Services Agency], nor any other component of the executive branch has any role supervising or having any activity relating to CPB,” Slavitt wrote in an April 30 email response, just two days after the White House sent emails firing CPB board members Tom Rothman, Diane Kaplan, and Laura Gore Ross without citing legal justification.

The Trump administration, however, maintains that the president has the constitutional authority to remove individuals who carry out executive functions. “The power to remove personnel who exercise his executive authority” rests with the president, a White House spokesperson told NPR.

The next court hearing in the case is scheduled for May 14.

CPB’s lawsuit warns that if the administration’s attempted board firings are upheld, the organization would be left without a quorum and unable to conduct business. That includes approving grant awards, managing pending litigation, and outlining legislative communication strategies with Congress.

A March hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Government Efficiency – sharing overlapping policy aims with DOGE – placed renewed scrutiny on CPB, NPR, and PBS over their use of federal funding. That funding, managed through CPB, has become a central flashpoint in the administration’s broader campaign to dismantle publicly funded media institutions.

DOGE’s influence has already spread to another independent broadcast-related agency traditionally insulated from executive authority. At the FCC, DOGE personnel Tarak Makecha, Jordan Wick, and Jacob Altik are publicly listed in the staff directory operating within the Office of the Chairman, with official FCC email addresses.

This week, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington unveiled a sweeping reform proposalunder the Trump administration’s DOGE directive. In a Daily Caller op-ed, Simington called for automating the FCC’s license approval process and shifting Media Bureau staff into other divisions, arguing that traditional broadcast oversight has outlived its relevance.