WASHINGTON, D.C. – September 9, 2025 – Kate Riley, President and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, made the following statement on the House Appropriations Committee’s action today that fails to restore essential funding for local public broadcasting stations across America in its fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations bill.
“Today, the House Appropriations Committee failed to extend a desperately needed lifeline to local communities that are already experiencing the negative effects of the devastating rescission of federal funding for local public media stations.
“Americans in every community across the country, especially rural communities, are now confronting the loss of essential services that only local public television stations provide from critical public safety services to proven education resources and essential local community connections and information.
“Without federal funding, local stations have been forced to eliminate or reduce local programs, including local history programs, community event coverage, agricultural programming and local public affairs programming among others.
“Without federal funding, local stations have been forced to eliminate or reduce local educational resources for their communities. Many children in rural communities have limited access to pre-K and the loss of public television's free educational opportunities is further devastating for those families that were already struggling to access resources for their children.
“The loss of federal funding is already preventing stations from installing new transmitters and making desperately needed infrastructure investments in areas prone to severe weather which threatens the reliable delivery of critical lifesaving public safety messages.
“The loss of federal funding threatens the continuity of 24/7 local service as we have already seen in Alaska where the rescission has forced KUAC in Fairbanks to power down their transmitter from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. every day. This means that in the case of severe weather or another emergency, critical public safety information will not be relayed over the KUAC transmitters.
“In rural areas where public media stations are often the only local media available, federal funding can represent over 30% of the stations’ budgets. And while local stations are trying to close the gap from these devastating cuts, there is no replacement for federal funding, especially in rural and small communities.
“Local communities depend on local public broadcasting stations’ services. And these local public broadcasting stations have earned the broad support of the American people, across the political spectrum, including 65% of people who voted for President Trump who think public television is either adequately funded or underfunded, according to a recent YouGov survey.
“Despite the lack of funding for local stations in this bill, we appreciate that a number of Members of Congress spoke about the important role local public media stations play in their communities, and their support for restoring funding for these local stations. America’s Public Television Stations look forward to working with these Members to ensure that funding for local stations is included in the final FY 2026 Appropriations Bill.
“Additionally, we are grateful to Representative Chellie Pingree who offered an amendment to support funding for public broadcasting and highlighted the essential services local stations provide in communities across the country, specifically in rural Maine.
“We urge Congress to respect the will of the American people, who have spoken loud and clear, and restore funding for local public broadcasting stations in the final FY 2026 appropriations bill.”
###
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 community connections to their local areas and the American people. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
Contact:
Stacey Karp
202-654-4222
skarp@apts.org