WASHINGTON—America’s Public Television Stations said it has presented the 2026 Patrick Butler National Advocacy Award to Idaho Public Television General Manager Jeff Tucker.

Butler received the award, presented at the APTS Public Media Summit on March 3, for his work in building relationships and support for the five-station public network among the Idaho Congressional delegation, state legislators and federal policymakers.

The APTS Patrick Butler National Advocacy Award, named for the group’s longest-serving former president and CEO, goes to local station leaders who excel in telling the story of their station’s work in education, public safety and community connections and how federal and state funding make it possible, APTS said.

“Jeff Tucker is a tireless advocate for public broadcasting, both in Congress and throughout the state of Idaho,” APTS President and CEO Kate Riley said. “Jeff has been an extraordinarily effective champion of our cause, working diligently to engage the Idaho delegation on the essential value of his local public broadcasting station and the important services they provide in communities throughout the state, especially in rural communities.

“Throughout this past, most challenging year, Jeff not only worked incredibly closely with his congressional delegation to make sure they understood the impacts of the rescission and how essential it was that some level of station funding was restored, but he also helped share the same messages with other key federal stakeholders,” she continued. “His assessment of the impacts on his station and other local stations throughout the country in similar positions has added an invaluable and highly trusted perspective to the ongoing discussions about the need for funding for local stations.”

Tucker has been IdahoPTV’s general manager since August of 2021. Since then, he as formed strong relationships with state agencies and other private and public organizations, APTS said. On his watch, “Idaho in Session” grew from streamed coverage via a single webcam to fiber-connected multicamera coverage from the Idaho House, Senate and committee rooms as well as the Idaho Supreme Court. Tucker also oversaw the planning, strategy and initial production for “Idaho Experience,” IdahoPTV’s newest long-form history documentary series. Prior to being named GM, Tucker was IdahoPTV’s director of content, overseeing programming, education services, digital media and strategy for local productions. He also managed the network’s independent and contract work, as well as content initiatives and production relationships with state and private entities, APTS said.

He has also worked as director/videographer, producer/director and production manager at IdahoPTV and has been in charge of its communications and membership departments.

“My approach to successful advocacy has always focused on getting to know a person on a human level,” Tucker said. “Whether they like you or what you do, it’s important to connect with them as people. Have a conversation. Learn about them. If you can make that personal connection first, the advocacy part seems to happen naturally.”

Tucker also serves on the advisory board of the University of Idaho’s James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research and the National Educational Telecommunications Association board of directors, APTS said.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) has 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.

The recommendations were much better than those issued by the House Appropriations Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies in mid-July. For the second straight year, the House Committee proposed ending all public funding for the CPB. 

“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.

Butler also said that “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,” he added. “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.”

“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 concluded. 

Earlier in mid-July, the House Appropriations Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies proposed eliminating future funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in its FY 2025 appropriations bill. The bill reported out of the committee on July 10 provided no funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), effective in FY 2027, a cut of $535 million from the current appropriation, and no funding for public media stations’ interconnection system, a cut of $60 million for FY 2025, the APTS reported. 

The bill did include level funding of $31 million in FY 2025 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.

“America’s Public Television Stations are deeply disappointed that the House Appropriations Committee has voted to discontinue federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public media stations’ interconnection system in the FY 2025 appropriations bill,” said Butler said in a July 10 statement on the House funding. 

In the earlier statement Butler said, however, that “notwithstanding today’s committee action, we remain hopeful that the strong bipartisan support for public media, both in Congress and among the American people, will ultimately result in full funding for CPB, interconnection and system infrastructure, and Ready To Learn as the appropriations process moves forward. At $1.60 per person, funding for public broadcasting remains the best bargain in the federal budget and the very definition of fiscal responsibility.” 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) has presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Patrick Butler, president and chief executive officer of APTS.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is given on rare occasions to leaders who have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to public broadcasting over the course of their careers.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Patrick Butler during the APTS Public Media Summit on Monday, February 26, 2024. 

During the summit, APTS also presented the 2024 Pillar of Public Service Award to Molly Phillips, former executive director and general manager of Iowa PBS, for her pioneering work in creating remarkable educational programming and content for the people of Iowa.

In terms of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Butler served as president and CEO of APTS for more than 13 years, making him the longest serving leader of the organization. Butler recently announced he will retire this year.

During Butler’s tenure, federal and state funding for public broadcasting has reached record levels. Forty of the 50 state governments now provide funding to support the work of public television stations. And Congress has enacted a new Next Generation Warning System infrastructure program for public broadcasters to assure their reliability as essential components of federal, state and local public safety communications, the group said. 

Under Butler’s direction, APTS has pursued a strategy to help stations achieve “greater success through greater service,” concentrating on three pillars of local public service: education, public safety and civic leadership. These services encompass lifelong learning, multi-hazard emergency communications, and chronicling heartland America’s culture, history and public affairs.

The strategy has won growing bipartisan support. In recent years, APTS has presented its Champion of Public Broadcasting award to U. S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Governor Henry McMaster (R-SC) and other political leaders spanning the ideological spectrum.

“Pat Butler has been the dedicated and visionary leader and voice of our local public television stations in our nation’s capital for over a decade of growth,” said APTS board chair Franz Joachim, general manager and chief executive officer of New Mexico PBS. “Pat’s leadership has led to significant legislative successes, including the first increases in federal funding after many years of level funding. From the three pillars of public service to the convergence of broadcast and broadband through NextGen TV, Pat’s forward-thinking strategies are leading public television on a path to inventing the future.”

“From working with Ken Burns to serving as board chair at the Maryland Public Television Foundation to leading APTS, no one has served our system longer, for better, than Pat Butler,” he continued. “We are all immensely grateful for Pat’s tireless commitment, unwavering determination and enormous heart. It is my privilege to present Pat Butler with a Lifetime Achievement Award he so richly deserves.”

Patrick Butler has been president and chief executive officer of America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) since January 1, 2011. During his tenure, public television stations have secured record levels of federal and state funding and substantially enhanced their local service in education, public safety and civic leadership.

Butler joined APTS after 18 years as senior vice president of The Washington Post Co., where among other duties he founded and led Newsweek Productions, which produced more than 200 hours of nonfiction programming, including “Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History,” winner of the Emmy Award for best documentary of 2003. While at the Post Company, Butler also chaired PCS Action, a coalition of companies pioneering personal communications services, the spectrum technology that ultimately enabled the smartphone. He also founded the Post Company’s conference business, now operating as Washington Post Live.

Butler earlier served as Washington vice president of Times Mirror, the corporate parent of the Los Angeles Times and other media properties, and he was a founder of the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press, which evolved into the Pew Research Center, one of the world’s leading public opinion research institutions. Butler also served as government relations vice president for RCA Corp. and as director of corporate public relations for Bristol-Myers Co. He was founder and president of Patrick Butler & Co., a communications consulting firm whose clients included leaders of government and business, and Cary Grant.

In government service, Butler was special assistant to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker Jr., R-Tenn., and adviser to the White House chief of staff during Baker’s service with President Ronald Reagan. (He was policy director of Baker for President in 1979-80.) Butler was also a speechwriter and the associate editor of the White House Editorial Office for President Gerald R. Ford. He was chairman of the impeachment task force for U.S. Rep. Lawrence J. Hogan, R-Md., a member of the House Judiciary Committee during its consideration of articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Butler was appointed by President Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the National Council on the Humanities, where he served as chairman of the public programs committee for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) under Chairman Lynne V. Cheney. During his tenure, Butler recommended the largest grant in the history of NEH for Ken Burns’ landmark public television series, The Civil War.

Butler is chairman emeritus of the Maryland Public Television Foundation, the retired chairman of the Corporate Advisory Board of SOME (So Others Might Eat, providing comprehensive care for the homeless people of Washington, D.C.), and the retired vice chairman of the board of trustees of American University and of the Foundation for the National Archives, where he secured a major grant from the Boeing Co. for the Boeing Learning Center.

He is a member of the boards of APTS (ex officio), the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, the Better Angels Society supporting the work of Ken Burns and other filmmakers following in his tradition, the Broadcasters Foundation of America, and the DC College Access Program, which since its founding in 1999 has helped more than 30,000 D.C. Public Schools graduates attend college.

Butler received the 2023 Champion Award from Maryland Public Television; the 2021 Champion of Public Broadcasting Award from the board of trustees of APTS; the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 from American Public Television, a leading provider of programming for public television stations; and the Excellence in Leadership Award in 2017 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

After majoring in political science at the University of Tennessee, he earned a Master of Arts (with distinction) in communication from American University and a certificate in finance and accounting from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has been accepted as a Joan Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and he was a guest lecturer (The First Amendment in the Twenty-First Century) at the 75th anniversary of the Princeton University School of Public Affairs.

Butler is married to Donna Norton Butler, and they have three daughters and three grandchildren.

2024 Pillar of Public Service Award

During the summit, Molly Phillips, former executive director and general manager of Iowa PBS, received the 2024 Pillar of Public Service Award for her pioneering work in creating remarkable educational programming and content for the people of Iowa.

The Pillar of Public Service Award recognizes the contribution of an extraordinary leader and innovator in one or more of public television’s three essential public service missions: education, public safety, and civic leadership.

Under Phillips’ leadership, Iowa PBS has become deeply embedded in the life of the State. From the station’s high-quality educational resources that help prepare Iowa’s children for success in school, to its hyperlocal coverage of agricultural news, to its broadcast of high school sports State championships, Iowa PBS provides services unique to Iowans that are unrivaled by anyone else in the State.

“Over the course of a 34-year career at Iowa PBS, Molly Phillips has pursued public television’s public service missions in extraordinary ways,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations. “Having served a variety of professional roles, including human resources, communications and community engagement, and culminating with her service as Executive Director and General Manager, Molly has made extraordinary contributions to communities across Iowa and to the entire public broadcasting system.

“Molly and her talented team at Iowa PBS have dramatically demonstrated the power of public television to deliver a broad range of essential public services across the State of Iowa,” he continued. “Iowa PBS is doing what public television stations do best: educating our children and serving our communities as partners in public service. Molly has been an innovative and relentless advocate for community service at its finest, both on television and through on-the-ground initiatives, and has set a standard of public service to which every public television station should aspire. We are all inspired by Molly’s dedication and passion for our public service missions and are immensely grateful for her decades of commitment to Iowa PBS and our system. It is my great honor to present Molly Phillips with the most well-deserved 2024 Pillar of Public Service Award.”

“I consider public television an essential service,” said Molly Phillips. “Essential because we help kids become school ready regardless of where they live or what their families can afford. Essential because we help teachers fill their classrooms with high-quality resources regardless of their district’s budget. Essential because our infrastructure helps assure public safety messages reach the most remote citizen. Essential because we help the homebound feel connected to their communities and each other. Essential because we inspire civic and civil discussion on the issues important to our state. We change lives every day in public media. What could be more rewarding than that? It has been an honor and a privilege to serve my community and my state through my work at Iowa PBS, and it is an honor to accept this award on behalf of that work.”

Molly Phillips was executive director and general manager for Iowa PBS, where she was responsible for leading Iowa’s only statewide broadcast network since 2013. Molly served Iowa PBS since 1990, devoting her career to the advancement of public television and Iowa PBS’s mission to educate, inform, enrich and inspire Iowans. She was previously the director of communications and community engagement at Iowa PBS, where for nearly 15 years she was responsible for the network’s state and federal public policy advocacy. America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) presented Molly with its National Advocacy Award in 2010.

Molly volunteered her time and talents to a long list of organizations advancing the vision and goals of public media. She served as chair on the APTS Board of Trustees and was an active member of the Organization of State Broadcasting Executives (OSBE). She also chaired the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for APTS. Molly served on the Public Broadcasting Service Board of Directors where she co-chaired the PBS Diversity Advisory Committee. She also served as past-chair on the National Education Telecommunications Association (NETA) Board of Directors. She previously served NETA as chair and secretary. As past chair, she also served on the Affinity Group Coalition of Public Media Organizations where she led an initiative to create professional development training opportunities for public media employees.

Molly holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business degree from Grand View University in Des Moines. She was raised in Southwest Iowa and she currently resides in Grimes with her husband Steve. They have three grown children together: Courtney and twin boys Taylor and Trevor.

Ken Burns. Mister Rogers. Downton Abbey. Earthquake warnings? Yes. While famous for producing educational programming for the American people, public television also plays an indispensable role in ensuring the public’s safety.

Using a portion of their FCC-licensed spectrum to send encrypted emergency information to law enforcement and first responder agencies:

• California’s public television stations are working with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to dramatically improve the standard warning time for earthquakes, from 30 seconds to one second.
• Alabama Public Television is the backbone for the state’s emergency alert system and provides extensive communications support for the departments of public safety and homeland security, the State Capitol Police, and 68 E911 centers throughout the state.
• In Texas, public television stations send real-time weather alerts, AMBER Alerts, school safety, flooding rescues, and hurricane and tornado warnings.
• New Mexico’s public television stations are expanding their signals to the “Bootheel” region bordering Mexico to provide emergency alerting and other public safety services, which may ultimately include border security.
• Vegas PBS in Nevada is the primary Emergency Operations Center for the Clark County School District, connecting schools, hospitals and first responders, and providing real-time alerts to the police department.
• At the national level, America’s public television stations have partnered with the US Department of Homeland Security to demonstrate our capabilities in over-water emergency communications, rural school safety, and helping law enforcement and first responder personnel to communicate better with each other.
• Just recently, millions of Americans’ cell phones were part of a successful test of FEMA’s National Wireless Emergency Alert System. But every day, America’s public television stations and PBS partner with FEMA to send cellphone users geo-targeted emergency text messages.
• And for decades, public television stations have provided the fail-safe path for communications from the President of the United States to the American people in times of national emergency.

We could do even more, and we hope to. Because of the one-to-many communications infrastructure of broadcasting, we have the potential to send highly-targeted, localized, multi-lingual, lifesaving messages –real-time video, a building blueprint, a picture of a missing child – to one or one million recipients simultaneously, without fear of overloading our capacity. 

Congress has funded the Next Generation Warning System program to help upgrade public broadcasters’ ability to respond to public safety challenges, particularly in rural areas and those underserved by internet providers. 

Properly equipped, public television stations could also enhance the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s nationwide weather alerting system, which is currently limited to radio-only communications but could be augmented with visual information including storm tracks, radar maps, evacuation routes, and recommended actions at the first sign of danger.

And with broadcast signals reaching 75 miles in every direction from our thousands of transmitters – each fortified against severe weather conditions and staffed full-time by professional engineers -- we are the obvious solution to many public safety challenges in rural America, where cell service remains elusive, expensive, and subject to the reliability of rural commercial power systems.

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967’s “universal service” mandate — to provide all Americans with free, over-the-air access to public broadcasting's programming and services -- ensures that our signals reach almost 100 percent of the U.S. population. 

Public television stations are proud of our educational programming and services, proud of the civic leadership we provide as the “C-SPAN” of state governments and chroniclers of heartland America’s history, culture and public affairs.

But nothing is more essential than our work in public safety, and in partnership with federal, state and local authorities we are ready to play an even greater role in protecting the lives and property of citizens everywhere.

Craig Fugate is the former Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a member of the board of trustees of America’s Public Television Stations. Patrick Butler is president and chief executive officer of America’s Public Television Stations.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies has recommended zeroing out public media funding in its FY 2024 appropriations bill, according to America’s Public Television Stations (APTS).

The bill reported out of the subcommittee today would provide no funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), effective in FY 2026, a cut of $535 million from the current appropriation.

There is also no funding for system interconnection and infrastructure for FY 2024, a cut of $60 million from current levels.

The APTS said that the bill does not include information 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 is a dark day for America’s Public Television Stations,” said APTS president and CEO Patrick Butler, “and we are only one of the casualties of a severe cutback that would also affect other important national institutions.”

“We understand the need for fiscal responsibility in the federal budget, and we are proud of the fact that America’s public television stations do so much for our communities and our country with an investment that constitutes less than one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget – the very definition of fiscal responsibility,” Butler added, noting that ““We’re the only preschool education there is for 60 percent of America’s children. We’re indispensable partners in national, state and local public safety and homeland security communications, from early earthquake warnings in California to Amber Alerts everywhere to presidential communications in times of national emergency. And we’re the only media institutions in the country telling the story of heartland America: its history, culture and civic affairs.”

“We remain hopeful that the strong bipartisan support for public media, both in Congress and among the American people, will ultimately result in full funding for CPB, system interconnection and infrastructure, and Ready To Learn as the appropriations process moves forward,” Butler concluded. 

Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-Texas), is chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The Subcommittee chair is Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.).

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Total government funding for public media rose to record levels last year, passing the $1 billion mark for the first time, America’s Public Television Stations president and CEO Patrick Butler said in his annual address to the Public Media Summit. 

Noting the important role that public media played during the pandemic, where more than 100 million American contracted COVID and a million died, Butler stressed that the future of local public television stations is “a public service enterprise reaching far beyond the confines of the television screen.

Local stations are already “inventing the future,” launching dedicated education and health channels, interactive job training courses geared to local market demands, public safety and border security communications networks, and more, he said. 

Butler also hailed the adoption of the Next Gen broadcast standard as a platform for greater progress and innovation in the future. 

“Twenty markets have made the transition to the new ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV broadcast standard with all of its potential for greater mobility, security, addressability interactivity, spectrum efficiency and signal strength, as well as dramatically better picture and sound quality and more stations are converging every month,” Butler said. “Software on display at this summit will give NextGen stations the ability to connect directly with viewers, increase engagement with them and enable new revenue opportunities. And before us lies the intriguing prospect of using a portion of our spectrum to support a national data distribution that work connecting consumers and institutions of all kinds to the billions of devices on the Internet of Things….[This] pathbreaking platform…deploys the right spectrum for the right purpose at the right time for precisely such applications. Without the need for elaborate station engineering. South Korea has found a way to link the NextGen broadcast standard with 5G technology for such a network and we can too.”

Public media’s work in delivering a host of new services for education, emergency alerts and entertainment during the COVID period of “sorrow and anxiety” also helped them build public support for increased funding during recent years, Butler said. 

“At our last in-person Summit in 2020, I was proud to report that federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) stood at $465 million as a result of a $20 million increase that you and we at APTS secured for the appropriation cycle just passed,” Butler said. “Since then, the CPB funding has increased every year by a total of $70 million. And the CPB appropriation now stands at an all time high of $535 million.”

Meanwhile, state governments have stepped up their support, Butler said. “Thirty-nine states now provide funds for public broadcasting and 20 of those states, providing more than half of our state funding, have both Republican governors and Republican legislatures. Including investment in capital projects and other special initiatives as well as station operations, state funding for public broadcasting reached $363 million last year and all the time record altogether government support for public broadcasting past the $1 billion dollar mark last year and that is a milestone worth celebrating.”

Butler acknowledged, however, that public stations face a difficult fiscal climate going forward. 

“A new Republican majority in the House of Representatives has come to Washington determined to rein in federal spending and reduce the national debt, investing only in programs they deem efficient, effective and essential,” he said. “One influential proposal making the rounds right now would reduce federal spending by $9 trillion over the next 10 years, largely through cuts in domestic programs. And we are on that list. Securing further increases for public broadcasting in such a climate is a daunting proposal."

"But we can say with absolute confidence that no federal appropriation does more with less than we do with one hundredth of one percent of the federal budget," he continued. "….[It] will be our responsibility, our opportunity to show them and every lawmaker how essential our work and public safety, education and civic leadership is to their constituents….We must impress on them that most stations in most markets simply don't have the donor base of corporations, foundations and generous individuals to sustain these services, much less enhance them without federal support. The Government Accountability Office reached precisely that conclusion when Congress asked them to study the question several years ago and the answer hasn't changed. This is why we're asking for an increase of $40 million for CBP in the next appropriation cycle, and level funding for ready-to-learn interconnection and system infrastructure and the next gen warning system. Securing that funding won't be easy. It never is. We're already advised that level of funding is a win for the next two years.”

NEW YORK—The Broadcasters Foundation of America has elected Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), and Hilton Howell, chairman of the board, president and CEO of Gray Television and Atlantic American Corp., to its Board of Directors. The new directors were voted in during the recent Foundation’s Board of Directors’ meeting.

The members of the Board represent an array of broadcast and broadcast-related companies and are dedicated to giving back to the community.

In a press statement Scott Herman, chairman of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, said, “We are delighted to welcome Patrick and Hilton to our board. They each bring a wealth of broadcast experience to our board, and their perspectives will be valuable as we continue to advance our mission of helping broadcasters in acute need.”

Prior to APTS, Butler spent 18 years at The Washington Post Co., where he founded and led Newsweek Productions. He was the founder and president of Patrick Butler & Co., a communications consulting firm whose clients included Henry Kissinger, White House chief of staff James Baker, American Express and RCA Corp., among other leaders of government and business, and actor Cary Grant. In government service, Butler was appointed by President Reagan to the National Council on the Humanities. He is the recipient of the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from American Public Television and the 2021 Champion of Public Broadcasting Award from the board of trustees of America's Public Television Stations.

Hilton Howell brings more than 25 years of experience in both the broadcast and insurance industries to his position on the Broadcasters Foundation board. He began his career practicing law and spent several years in leadership roles. He sits on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Broadcasters, the Advisory Council for the Center for Leadership and Ethics for the University of Texas at Austin and is a former member on the NBC Affiliate Board. He was appointed by Governor Zell Miller to serve on the board of the Georgia Department of Human Resources and serves as chairman of the board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

The Broadcasters Foundation has assisted thousands of broadcasters who have lost their livelihood through a catastrophic event, debilitating disease or unforeseen tragedy. To learn more about the organization or make a donation, visit www.broadcastersfoundation.org.

WASHINGTON—The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies has recommended $495 million in advance funding for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting in fiscal year 2022, an increase of $50 million. According to Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, this would be the first increase in funding for the CPB in the last 10 years.

In addition to the FY 2022 proposal, the subcommittee also recommended level funding of $20 million in FY 2020 for an annual interconnection and infrastructure account, which supports nationwide emergency alerting, provides local stations with national programming, connect stations with each other and create operational efficiencies.

Butler says that the increase in funding will assist in public broadcasting’s ability to educate children, protect lives and property and allow for citizens to be more well-informed. He also hopes that funding will be provided for Ready to Learn, a competitive grant program at the Department of Education, which creates and distributes educational content to children across the country.

“The federal investment in public broadcasting is essential to local public television stations’ public service missions of education, public safety and civic leadership, and to ensuring that everyone, everywhere, every day has access to these essential free services for free,” said Butler.

The proposal from the subcommittee is in contrast to what President Donald Trump set forth in his proposed FY 2020 budget, which would have significantly cut the funding to the CPB over the next two years.

“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 across the country, and we couldn’t be more proud of this vote of confidence in our work,” Butler added.

He continued: “We are most grateful to the bipartisan leadership of Chairwoman DeLauro and Ranking Member Cole, and the full membership of the subcommittee, for the critical support they have provided for the work of local public television stations through this funding for CPB and interconnection.”

WASHINGTON—As he has done in each of his budget proposals, President Donald Trump is once again proposing to cut, and eventually eliminate, federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In his administration’s official proposal for Fiscal Year 2020, CPB’s federal fundings would be cut to $30 million for 2020 and 2021, a drop from the $465 million provided to the organization in 2019.

“CPB grants represent a small share of the total funding for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR), which primarily rely on private donations to fund their operations,” the proposal argues. “This private fundraising has proven durable, negating the need for continued Federal subsidies.”

“In addition,” the proposal continues, “alternatives to PBS and NPR programming have grown substantially since CPB was first established in 1967, greatly reducing the need for publicly funded programming options.”

President Trump had previously proposed to cut funding for CPB in his previous budgets, but Congress eventually passed appropriation bills that provided full funding to the organization.

“Federal funding is the foundation of the uniquely American, public-private partnership of the public media system,” reads a statement from Patricia de Stacy Harrison, president and CEO of CPB. “The support of Congress, combined with private funding, enables locally owned and operated public media stations to promote early learning, prepare young people for job opportunities, provide critical emergency alert services in partnership with public safety officials and tell authentic stories in ways that enhance our civil society.

“There is no viable alternative to the federal investment to accomplish the mission that Congress assigned to public media and that the American people overwhelmingly support. Without the federal investment, the entire public media system and the unique services and value provided to rural, small town and urban communities would be devastated.”

“American Public Television Stations are disappointed that President Trump’s FY 2020 budget proposal once again recommends elimination of federal funding for public media,” Patrick Butler, APTS president and CEO, wrote in a statement.

“We are grateful that Congress approved full funding for public broadcasting in FY 2019, and we are hopeful that Congress will increase funding for public media in the FY 2020 appropriations cycle and beyond,” Butler added.

“We live in hope that the administration will ultimately appreciate that federal funding is essential to local public television stations’ ability to pursue their critical public service missions of education, public safety and civic leadership, and to provide these services to everyone, everywhere every day, for free.”

WASHINGTON—A week after the U.S. House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee made its recommendation for public broadcasting funding, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee did the same.

The approved funding will see $445 million provided to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2019 Fiscal Year, as well as level funding of $25.7 million for the 2017 Fiscal Year for Ready to Learn, and $10 million for the 2017 for the new public broadcasting interconnection system. According to America’s Public Television Stations President and CEO Patrick Butler, this is first time in six years that both the House Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee and the House Appropriations Committee have voted to provide funding to Ready to Learn, which supports the creation of public television’s on-air, online and on-the-ground educational media content.

“We very much appreciate the Committee’s broad bipartisan support for funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and through it the public service missions of 170 public television licensees serving 99 percent of the American people in the hundreds of communities around the country,” Butler said in a statement. “We remain hopeful that as the appropriations process runs its course, full funding of $50 million will be provided for the new interconnection system to help ensure that public television service remains available to every American everywhere, for free, particularly those in the most rural and remote regions.

“We are especially appreciative of the leadership of Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY), and subcommittee chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) and Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), in creating a broad bipartisan consensus in favor of this funding. We are greatly encourage by this growing support in Congress—on both sides of the aisle—for public broadcasting’s essential public service missions in education, public safety and civic leadership, and we will continue to serve our communities across the country and earn that essential support every day.”