The nonprofit corporation created by Congress to steward the US federal government’s investment in public broadcasting has voted to dissolve the organization after 58 years.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting board’s decision follows Congress’s rescission of all of CPB’s federal funding and comes after sustained political attacks that made it impossible for CPB to continue operating as the Public Broadcasting Act intended.

First authorized under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, CPB helped build and sustain a nationwide public media system of more than 1,500 locally owned and operated public radio and television stations including PBS, NPR and hundreds of public radio stations.

Through CPB’s stewardship, public media became a trusted civic resource—delivering educational programming like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street that helped generations of children learn and grow, providing lifesaving emergency alerts during natural disasters and crises, and supporting rigorous, fact-based journalism that uncovers issues impacting people’s daily lives, connects neighbors to one another, and strengthens civic participation.

“For more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans—regardless of geography, income, or background—had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling,” said Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of CPB.

“When the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our Board faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks.”

CPB’s Chair Ruby Calvert says “what has happened to public media is devastating.”

“After nearly six decades of innovative, educational public television and radio service, Congress eliminated all funding for CPB, leaving the Board with no way to continue the organization or support the public media system that depends on it. Yet, even in this moment, I am convinced that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media’s role in our country because it is critical to our children’s education, our history, culture and democracy to do so.”

Republicans have accused public broadcasting and its news programming of being biased toward liberals, but it was not until the second Trump administration that the criticism was turned into action.