“Consideration of legislation relating to the federal funding of NPR” will occur in the House of Representatives on Thursday, March 17, according to the new weekly schedule posted by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). The schedule notes that the timing complies with the House’s new three-day notice requirement. The 112th Congress established a minimum three-day scheduling notice to give members and the public time to review bills.
The schedule does not specify what bill is under discussion, but several are pending to zero out public broadcasting money. H.R. 69, sponsored by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), targets federal funding specifically for NPR programming.
In my opinion, our government representatives should limit, maybe even prohibit, the allocation of funds to media organizations,however, not public media organizations. The government should prohibit funding to private media organizations, such as Cnn and Fox, for advertisement and other miscellaneous purposes. I believe they should direct funding towards local public media organizations in order to promote the strengthening of local economies. This will also benefit the local communities through the dissemination of pertinent information to the listeners unlike the popular culture information that is disseminated by large private organizations. Finally, I do not regard this “issue” as pressing in the current economic climate. Other issues are far more pressing(e.g. high unemployment, entitlement programs, defense spending, implementation of quantitative easing,rising energy and food costs, etc.); these are the issues that should be consuming the time of our elected officials not the funding of a media organization. I would like to personally express my thanks to our “elected” officials for their expenditure of OUR money, accumulated through determination and sacrifice, on a discussion of a immaterial issue that is the least of the worries of their constituents. Thank you for being aware of our concerns and needs.