System/Policy
Watch CPB’s CEO testify before Congress
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Pat Harrison visited the Hill to explain why public media deserves federal support.
Current (https://current.org/tag/federal-funding/page/4/)
Pat Harrison visited the Hill to explain why public media deserves federal support.
Past votes may indicate how legislators weighing in on CPB’s appropriation will address the White House’s proposed end to federal funding.
The likelihood of total defunding seems slim — but public media would surely see some changes if support really were cut.
And a sitting CPB board member discusses why the corporation should be defunded.
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.