Quick Takes
Congressmen aim to generate bipartisan support for letter on CPB funding
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Last year’s letter was signed by a bipartisan group of 132 members of the House.
Current (https://current.org/tag/federal-funding/page/4/)
Last year’s letter was signed by a bipartisan group of 132 members of the House.
Organizers delivered petitions to members of Congress, bearing 660,000 signatures gathered online to save CPB funding.
The petitions contain more than 660,000 signatures of public broadcasting supporters.
Future appropriations are also at risk.
“The policy is, we’re ending federal involvement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” said Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.
Pence “values his experiences with public media,” Woodruff said at the APTS Public Media Summit.
Support for funding spanned all regions of the country, with most respondents citing public TV’s educational mission as its most important value.
Three powerful congressional chairmen who support public broadcasting will continue in their key roles in both the House and Senate.
But the first possible hurdle for CPB funding in the new administration could come fairly soon.
Patrick Butler spoke Friday at the annual Fall Marketplace sponsored by distributor American Public Television.
The interconnection outlay in the Senate bill for fiscal year 2017 bolsters funding of $40 million approved in December’s Omnibus Appropriations bill.
Attendees at the APTS Public Media Summit gave a preview of their talking points.
The joint resolution approves the blueprint for the $3.8 trillion 2016 federal budget.
CPB is set to receive its full requested appropriation in the spending bill nearing passage in Congress, which will fund the government through next September. The 1,603-page bill, already passed by the House of Representatives, includes the full $445 million appropriation for CPB in fiscal year 2017. CPB traditionally receives its appropriation two years in advance to help facilitate production pipelines. Ready to Learn will also receive its requested funding of $25.7 million if the bill passes as written. No critics of public media have surfaced to call for zeroing out CPB funding, said Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations and public TV’s chief lobbyist on the Hill.
Though its chances of advancing in Congress are considered slim, the proposed budget put forth this week by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan would zero out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Ryan said in the budget document released Tuesday that federal subsidies for CPB and the National Endowment for the Humanities could “no longer be justified.”
“The activities and content funded by these agencies go beyond the core mission of the federal government,” the document reads. “These agencies can raise funds from private-sector patrons, which will also free them from any risk of political interference.”
The proposed budget does not stipulate whether the zeroed-out funding would apply to the already appropriated two-year funding cycle, or whether it would be implemented after the forward-funded cycle. Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, said the proposal was expected. Ryan’s staffers told Butler a few weeks ago that the proposed budget would include zeroed-out funding.
President Obama has maintained level CPB funding in his fiscal 2015 federal budget request, but recommends eliminating the Rural Digital program and consolidating Ready to Learn funding into other programs within the U.S. Department of Education, in a mixed blessing for pubcasters.
With pubcasting no longer a political football, station reps meeting with lawmakers started off on better footing this year.
A government-wide spending bill containing more than $1 trillion in appropriations, including $445 million for CPB through fiscal year 2016, passed the Senate Thursday by a wide margin on its way to President Obama’s desk. The Senate voted 72-26 for the measure after it cleared the House the previous day. Republicans cast all of the dissenting votes. In addition to CPB funding, the bill allocates $2 million for rural noncom stations that qualify for CPB’s Community Service Grants. Federal aid for CPB has remained relatively stable over the past three years, though appropriations took a hit with the automatic spending cuts that took effect in March 2013.
A grassroots initiative that encourages citizens to lobby Capitol Hill for continued funding to public media is changing its name, revamping its website and updating its social-media outreach. Starting July 15, the 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting initiative, which launched in December 2010, will become Protect My Public Media, according to a message sent to supporters July 1. In a statement posted June 14 on the National Friends of Public Broadcasting website, NPR’s Mike Riksen said pubcasting’s Washington representatives have been working over several months to make the campaign “a more capable and vital asset in our efforts to preserve federal funding for public broadcasting stations.”
NPR has been collaborating with the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) to revamp the campaign, he said. Riksen is NPR’s v.p. of policy and representation. Representatives for NPR and APTS declined to discuss the changes with Current.