House GOP Appropriator Backs CPB Despite Trump Administration's Proposed Gutting

“My own inclination? Sure, I’m supportive,” said House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., in an interview Thursday. “It’s a very important mission. Obviously, there’s disagreement about that in the House, but every time that’s been put to a vote, it’s been demonstrated pretty decisively there’s a lot of support there.”

Some Republicans in the House have pressed for axing CPB and one introduced legislation to do so during this Congress. Appropriators on Capitol Hill would need to take up the White House budget for it to become law, which some saw as unlikely. The lawmakers were seen earlier this year as a backstop against fears of such an administration action (see 1702240070).

“I think the proposal, like most of the budget, will be dead on arrival,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., in an interview, citing “broad support” for CPB. “Rural and small-town America relies on [public media] more than anybody else. It would decimate their service. It’s also kind of interesting that the survey research suggests that Republicans and Democrats alike want to maintain the level of funding or increase it -- and that includes Trump voters. We’re taking it seriously, we’re going to push back, but I think he’s not going to be successful.” Blumenauer and Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., have been circulating a letter in recent days backing CPB funding (see 1703130059).

Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., protested the CPB proposal. "Any funding cuts to the CPB could create a content deficit where the public no longer has access to enriching educational, civic, and entertainment shows for all Americans, regardless of ethnic, racial or socio-economic background,” they wrote in a letter to Trump. "With its near universal footprint, CPB provides virtually all Americans with access to this educational content and top-caliber local, regional, and national news. Approximately 99% of all Americans can enjoy this public media, regardless of how much money they earn or where they live."

Broad Concerns

Other senior congressional Democrats immediately blasted the overall White House FY 2018 proposal and declared it unable to make it through Congress.

“Dead on arrival,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on CNBC. “This is systemic deconstruction of the federal government,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters, fearing what it portends for President Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan -- potentially what may be a “tax bill for the rich disguised as infrastructure,” she said. Current FY 2017 funding expires April 28 due to the expiration of a continuing resolution passed last fall and FY 2018 begins in October. The White House expects to release a fuller FY 2018 proposal in May.

Commerce Department funding would be slashed by 15.7 percent, a $7.8 billion request that’s down by about $1.5 billion. But NTIA appears not to be a target for cuts. The administration continues to back NTIA “in representing the United States interest at multi-stakeholder forums on internet governance and digital commerce,” the budget request said. “The Budget supports the commercial sector’s development of next generation wireless services by funding NTIA’s mission of evaluating and ensuring the efficient use of spectrum by Government users.” CTIA backs this NTIA request, said Executive Vice President Brad Gillen: “NTIA plays a vital role in managing mission-critical spectrum for federal agencies, while opening up new bands.” The document didn’t mention funding for the FCC and FTC. White House and Office of Management and Budget spokespeople didn’t offer those figures.

The budget “safeguards cyberspace with $1.5 billion for DHS activities that protect Federal networks and critical infrastructure from an attack,” the budget said. “Through a suite of advanced cyber security tools and more assertive defense of Government networks, DHS would share more cybersecurity incident information with other Federal agencies and the private sector, leading to faster responses to cybersecurity attacks directed at Federal networks and critical infrastructure.” It strengthens cybersecurity for the Treasury Department, the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability and NASA, it said.

The administration seems to be “taking its cues from a deeply flawed framework put forward by the Heritage Foundation,” said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Senior Fellow Joe Kennedy Thursday in a blog post. “It is proposing to slash federal investments in critical areas that contribute significantly to economic growth.”

OMB Director Mick Mulvaney invoked a coal miner in West Virginia and single mother in Detroit, speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe: “We can’t ask them to continue to pay" for CPB.

“It’s a very popular program, one that I think’s got genuine bipartisan support,” Cole countered. “We’ll have to work the process through and see where we end up.”

A spokesman for Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the appropriator in the upper chamber overseeing CPB, didn’t comment specifically on the program’s fate. “The budget proposal is the first step in the appropriations process,” Blunt told us in a statement. “Every year the Appropriations Committee evaluates federal programs and considers whether those programs are effective, not duplicative, and meets public needs. The President’s budget proposal is always considered as part of that process, as are requests from individual Senators, input from cabinet secretaries at budget hearings, and views from advocates and constituents.”

Pubcaster Outcry

Public media rose to defend the program. Petitioning was underway.

The CPB cuts “would initially devastate and ultimately destroy public media’s role in early childhood education, public safety, connecting citizens to our history, and promoting civil discussions for Americans in rural and urban communities alike,” said CPB CEO Patricia Harrison. “At approximately $1.35 per citizen per year, it pays huge dividends.” CPB plans to work with the administration and Congress “in raising awareness that elimination of federal funding to CPB begins the collapse of the public media system itself and the end of this essential national service,” she said. Harrison is to testify before House appropriators on the CPB budget March 28.

“PBS and our nearly 350 member stations, along with our viewers, continue to remind Congress of our strong support among Republican and Democratic voters, in rural and urban areas across every region of the country,” said President Paula Kerger. “We have always had support from both parties in Congress, and will again make clear what the public receives.”

The CPB proposal “defies the will of the American people and would devastate the educational and public safety missions of public television they value most,” said America’s Public Television Stations CEO Patrick Butler: GAO "found that there is no substitute for federal funding in the provision of these services to everyone, everywhere, every day, for free.” APTS stations “look now to the Congress to respect the clear will of the American people, to honor the long history of bipartisan support for our work,” Butler said.

“The public will loudly oppose these cuts and all of Trump’s attacks on essential support for local arts and culture,” Free Press President Craig Aaron said. Lawmakers “should do themselves a favor by listening to the voices of their constituents instead of cozying up to the administration and its ill-advised plan to silence NPR and PBS” and “will soon be reminded” of public media’s popularity, Aaron said.

“It’s always important to take these things seriously, and I think they do at PBS,” Cole told us of the public media defense. “They have a real and a very important national mission and a real political constituency that’s genuinely bipartisan. We’re always going to look at anything the president proposes, but we’re a long, long way from a final budget deal.” Trump is “broadly right,” wanting to increase defense spending and be more fiscally responsible, Cole said. But "the places where cuts are coming are really 12 to 15 percent of the budget, because you’re excluding defense, veterans and homeland security," he said. "That’s a pretty heavy lift for all the cuts to fall on that small a portion of the budget.”