WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 29, 2021 – The U.S. House of Representatives today approved $565 million in advance funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in Fiscal Year 2024.
The approved funding was included in the FY 2022 Departments of Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.
“This is a historic day for public television,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations. “The House of Representatives has approved the largest increase in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in half a century, in recognition of the extraordinary work our stations have done in America’s communities and the exciting potential for even greater service in education, public safety and civic leadership in the years to come.
“We had faith that Congress would appreciate the role public television stations played in providing remote learning services, reliable health and civic information, and essential public safety communications during the pandemic, and that faith has been fully justified today.
“After 10 long years of level funding, when our stations lost $100 million in purchasing power, this vote of confidence in our work is profoundly appreciated. We hope the Senate will approve this level of funding in its own appropriations process, and we will do our best to provide an impressive return on this much-needed federal investment.
“This funding will enable public television stations to educate more children, protect more lives and property, and enable more well-informed citizens to guide the world’s most important democracy.
“Throughout the pandemic, public television stations, which serve nearly all Americans, have clearly demonstrated their essential role in public service, standing up remote learning services in all 50 States and U.S. Territories, providing a broad range of standards-based, curriculum-aligned educational services, in collaboration with State and local education authorities, to help students, teachers and parents continue a high-quality learning process, and devoting their entire daytime broadcast schedule to age-appropriate educational programming.
“In addition, public television datacasting has been used to deliver IP data over the broadcast television signal to provide digital educational resources to students without broadband connections, helping to bridge the digital divide and close the homework gap.
“We’ve also conveyed COVID-related information to millions of viewers from Governors, State health and education officials, and other authorities through our role as the “C-SPAN” of many State governments and as the chronicler of hometown America’s history, culture and public affairs. We provide public safety communications to States and local governments across America, and public television stations are the backbone of the national Wireless Emergency Alert system for national emergency communications. And public television stations nationwide use our community convening power every day to help communities’ solve urgent problems and heal divisions.
“We are also appreciative of the recommended level funding of $20 million in FY 2022 for station interconnection, the backbone of the public broadcasting system, supporting nationwide emergency alerting, providing local stations with national programming, connecting stations with each other, and creating operational efficiencies.
“And we are very pleased that $31.776 million, an increase of $2.276 million, in FY 2022 has been recommended for Ready To Learn, a competitive grant program at the Department of Education that supports public television’s essential work -- on-air, online and on-the-ground -- in early childhood education, to help build science, math and literacy skills of children between the ages of two and eight. Public television content created through Ready To Learn grants has been proven to help close the achievement gap between children from low-income families and their more affluent peers.
“America’s public television stations are ready to do more, to help revolutionize education in a post-pandemic America, to train more of America’s adults for better jobs, to provide more essential public safety communications services, to create a more well-informed citizenry that considers issues in a civil and constructive manner, and to use a portion of our licensed spectrum to do more to enhance telehealth, national security, Smart Cities connections, transportation efficiency, precision agriculture and more.
“The broad support for public media funding among both Republicans and Democrats in Congress reflects the overwhelming support of the American people for our service in communities throughout America, and we couldn’t be more proud of this vote of confidence in our work.
“We are most grateful for the bipartisan leadership of Chair DeLauro and Ranking Member Granger, and Subcommittee Ranking Member Cole, and for the critical support they have provided for the work of local public television stations through this funding for CPB, interconnection and Ready To Learn.”
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About APTS
America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system and helping member stations provide essential public services in education, public safety and civic leadership to the American people. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
Contact:
Stacey Karp
202-654-4222
skarp@apts.org