WASHINGTON – March 22, 2024 – The U.S. House of Representatives today approved $535 million in advance funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in fiscal year 2026.
The FY 2024 omnibus appropriations package also included $60 million for public media stations’ interconnection system, $31 million for Ready To Learn and $40 million for the Next Generation Warning System at FEMA to upgrade public broadcasting stations’ public safety infrastructure in fiscal year 2024.
“America’s Public Television Stations are grateful for this bipartisan congressional support of a continuing public investment in our work and for the Congress’s recognition of the critical role our local stations play in their communities,” said Patrick Butler, APTS president and CEO.
“Working under the challenging constraints of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, Congress has made clear its enduring endorsement of our public service missions of education, public safety and civic leadership.
“Public television provides the only preschool education there is for more than half of America’s children.
“We provide lifesaving public safety communications, ranging from early earthquake warnings to Amber Alerts to presidential messages to the American people in times of national emergency, in partnership with federal, State and local authorities.
“And we’re the only media institutions which specialize in telling the stories of heartland America – its history, culture, and civic affairs – one community, one State at a time.
“We are thankful for the $60 million in FY 2024 for the annual station interconnection account, which is the backbone of the public broadcasting system, connecting local stations with national programming services and with each other to provide the educational programming that benefits millions of Americans of all ages.
“And we appreciate the $31 million for Ready To Learn, a competitive grant program at the Department of Education that supports the creation and distribution of educational media content to millions of children across America. This program has been proven to help close the achievement gap between children from low-income families and their more affluent peers.
“We are also pleased that this bill includes $40 million for public broadcasting’s Next Generation Warning System for fiscal year 2024, although this appropriation represents a $16 million reduction from current funding. Public broadcasting provides a critical communications infrastructure for emergency alerting and has active and growing partnerships with the public safety community at the local, State and federal levels. Reliable and resilient public broadcasting infrastructure is crucial to the success of this public safety mission.
“We are hopeful for a speedy final passage of this appropriations package in the Senate. And we are profoundly grateful for the bipartisan, bicameral congressional support of Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Murray and Vice Chair Collins, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Baldwin, Chair Murphy, Ranking Member Capito, and Ranking Member Britt and House Appropriations Committee Chair Granger and Ranking Member DeLauro, House Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Aderholt, Chair Joyce, and Ranking Member Cuellar and the full bipartisan membership of the Appropriations Committees for the critical support they have provided for the work of local public television stations through this funding for CPB, interconnection, Ready To Learn and the Next Generation Warning System.”
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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