House Resolution Approval Worries Public Broadcasting Industry
The House approval of resolution HR-1, which cuts federal spending by $100 billion, including all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has the public broadcasters trying to prevent that from passing the Senate, industry officials said. “We held no program harmless from our spending cuts, and virtually no area of government escaped this process unscathed,” said House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky. The House also rejected an amendment by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., that calls for restoring $460 million for CPB.
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Capitol Hill has very thoughtful legislators “who know the value of public broadcasting,” Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., told us. “I certainly stand in strong opposition with them on the $430 million raid on public broadcasting that is drastically extreme and painfully irresponsible."
CPB plans to give the Senate information including “how much funding CPB provides to their state; the economic impact of public broadcasting in that state in terms of employment and wages; as well as examples of local programming that is uniquely in service to that state,” a spokeswoman said in an e-mail. If HR-1 passes the entire legislative process, rural areas would be hardest hit, she said. The Senate “tends to have a stronger rural focus,” she said.
The House proposal would hurt the 10 public radio and television stations in Iowa, said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. The stations received about $3.9 million from CPB, he said. The resolution would result “in a loss of educational and general audience programming, and programs about Iowa that only Iowa Public Television can provide,” he said. The smart way “to bring down the deficit is for Congress to pursue a balanced approach of major spending cuts and necessary revenue increases, while continuing to take steps to strengthen the Iowa economy,” he said.
"Eliminating all federal funding for public broadcasting would cripple Iowa Public Television, seriously jeopardizing our ability to deliver programs and services to the 1.5 million people who use them each week,” said Dan Miller, IPT general manager. “We're already doing considerably more with considerably less. Doing more with none simply can’t be done."
The bill would be a “death sentence for stations serving rural and small-town America,” said Association of Public Television Stations President Pat Butler. Last week, APTS and NPR formed the Public Media Association, an initiative aimed at responding to the defunding effort. PMA will be governed by a legislative council that will “help public radio and television stations build support in their communities for these essential services,” NPR said. PMA “will be working with our friends in the Senate to let them know how valuable public broadcasting is to citizens,” Butler said in an interview. He expects to have the legislative council formed by the end of the week. The association has several lobbyists on retainer, he added. The CPB cannot lobby, but it will continue to work with APTS, PBS and NPR, the CPB spokeswoman said.
"Congress is ignoring the millions of voices who have spoken out in favor of public media and is playing politics with our right to diverse and independent media,” said Josh Silver, Free Press president. “We need more educational children’s programming, not more Jersey Shore.”