Current.org | Congress approves first DTV aid to pubcasting

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Congress earmarks first digital aid

Bill boosts CPB appropriation 36%, repeals cap on national salaries

In the massive spending bill written into law last week, the 105th Congress came through with lots of good news for public broadcasting.

For fiscal year 2001, CPB's forward-funded appropriation goes up to $340 million under the omnibus bill--36 percent above the present level.

And for the just-started fiscal year, Congress allocated CPB $15 million to help with the digital transition--what pubcasters hope is the first installment of continuing aid.

Also for this year, legislators boosted funds for three edtech programs, preserved the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program at current spending levels, and allocated $15 million in digital transition aid, contingent on passage of authorizing legislation by next September.

The omnibus budget bill also removes the long-standing salary cap, which has limited compensation of CPB, PBS and NPR employees to Level I of the federal government's executive pay schedule, or $151,800. PBS and NPR now must adhere to tax rules that define "reasonable compensation" at all nonprofit organizations, according to Greg Ferenbach, PBS general counsel. The IRS code sets penalties for nonprofits that overcompensate their executives, and sets standards that establish reasonable pay rates.

Negotiators who hammered out the 4,000-page, 40-pound measure, covering most of the government, adopted the Senate's more generous approach to federal aid for pubcasting. The final measure doubled funding for Mathline, bringing it up to $5 million; provided $11 million for Ready to Learn, the preschool education program's first-ever increase; and boosted Star Schools spending by 37 percent to $46.5 million. The appropriations bill approved by the House this summer had "zeroed out" all three edtech programs.

In addition, House-Senate negotiators retained the $15 million in "digitalization" aid that had originated in the Senate appropriations process and that the House had previously refused to fund on procedural grounds. The provision does bow to the House concern: the money goes away if the Commerce Committees don't authorize the spending by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30.

The deadline was a boon for pubcasters, because the Senate had previously set April 1, 1999, as the date--a requirement that CPB President Bob Coonrod had earlier called "wildly optimistic." Coonrod welcomed a deadline, however. "Sometimes, if you're working against a deadline," he said, "you can accomplish things you couldn't without a deadline."

Nevertheless, pubcasting's representatives in Washington foresaw saw big tasks ahead.

"Sensitivity testing"

"It's been clear for a long time that DTV funding was a stretch this year," commented Ferenbach. "The prospects for it remain so throughout the next year."

The fact that Congress appropriated as little as $15 million is a victory, he believes, because the earmark laid the ground work for the next legislative session.

Winning authorization of DTV aid, now linked to CPB's own overdue reauthorization, "is going to be a lot of work," he added. "There are a lot of policy issues that need to be addressed": namely those raised by members of Congress in an Oct. 5 House hearing--commercialism and station "overlap" [earlier article].

"We face a challenging legislative agenda next session," said APTS Vice President Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis, "and public television stations will have to step up their advocacy efforts if we expect to be successful in obtaining digital funding."

Despite the big boost in CPB funds for fiscal 2001, funding for DTV capital equipment isn't adequate so far, commented Mohrman-Gillis.

Significant digital funding will be "critical" in fiscal 2000, when many more public TV stations will begin buying digital equipment and putting DTV channels on the air, noted Coonrod.

Pubcasting lobbyists will have to "do some sensitivity testing" on DTV cost estimates and demonstrate to Congress that outside experts verify the validity of the estimates. If the field can supply evidence about the coming demand for DTV funding, and about the validity of the estimates, "we should be looking at a rosier picture" in next year's DTV aid, Coonrod predicted.

Splitting the DTV funds

Public broadcasting leaders have agreed on a basic split of the $15 million and any future federal aid for the digital transition:

An amount for public radio's transition, yet to be determined but expected to be far less expensive than TV's, will be taken off the top.

Eighty percent of the remainder will be distributed to public TV stations in equal matching grants, per transmitter, according to Mohrman-Gillis. Stations will receive the grants only if they pledge to contribute an equal match and certify that they will complete construction of their DTV stations under FCC rules.

Twenty percent will go into a special grant fund at CPB, which will consider individual stations' special needs.

The compromise meets three tests, explained Coonrod. It's defensible as public policy, stations can support it, and it's doable.

"Part of your message to Congress is that we're going to make sure everybody in America has access to this, so part of the money has to be allocated for that purpose," he said. "On the other hand, you want every station in America to support this, so most of the money that you get will support the basic infrastructure."

Salary cap "kind of obsolete"

In its repeated and eventually successful efforts to remove the federally mandated salary cap, PBS made the argument that lifting it would be good public policy.

The IRS code governing nonprofit compensation, strengthened by Congress in the wake of the United Way of America compensation scandals, made the PBS/NPR cap "kind of obsolete," commented Ferenbach.

"The salary cap basically has been superceded by the new law," he explained. "It's more appropriate for the PBS Board to determine what's appropriate than the Congress. That's a pretty easy sell on its own merits, it makes a whole lot of sense and that's why it was enacted."

Nevertheless, PBS enlisted outside lobbyists and "board members who cared" about the issue to line up support for the change. Former House Minority Leader Robert Michel, a PBS Board member, was "helpful" to the effort, acknowledged Ferenbach.

The extent to which NPR pushed for the change was unclear. "It was not one of our top legislative priorities," said spokeswoman Siriol Evans. "We have not been engaged in any meetings on Capitol Hill recently."

"This has been a thorn in the side of management and the board for about 10, maybe 20 years," said Ferenbach. "When top candidates who otherwise would have taken the job just can't swing it, you narrow your pool substantially." Retaining employees is also a problem. "People go to work at stations, CTW, and other outlets, and go to much higher salaries."

The compensation rules apply to both incumbent and future employees, but Ferenbach doesn't anticipate big changes in PBS's payroll soon. "The board and president will move slowly with this, I imagine."