WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 1, 2024 – America’s Public Television Stations today applauded the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee for proposing level funding of $535 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for fiscal year 2027 and $60 million for public media stations’ interconnection system for fiscal year 2025.
“America’s Public Television Stations are grateful for the bipartisan support of the Senate Appropriations Committee for this continued investment in the work of public television,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations.
“We are pleased by this recognition of the critical role our local stations play in their communities and the essential services they provide all Americans in 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 2025 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.
“We await further word on funding 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 remain hopeful that Ready To Learn’s essential work will continue to be supported through full funding.
“This is truly essential work, worthy of federal investment. We are grateful for the bipartisan, support of Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Murray and Vice Chair Collins, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Baldwin and Ranking Member Capito for their leadership in ensuring continued federal support for local public television stations’ essential public services in education, public safety and civic leadership.
“We are hopeful that the bipartisan, bicameral congressional support for public television will result in the final FY 2025 appropriations bills including the Senate funding levels,” Butler said.
###
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