WASHINGTON—America’s Public Television Stations has issued a statement saying it was “disappointed that the House Appropriations Labor-H Subcommittee did not include essential funding for local public television stations today in their FY 2027 appropriations bill."
It also urged Congress to restore the funding and create a new funding mechanism for public stations to replace the now defunct Corporation for Public Broadcasting and thanked the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee for recommending continued funding of $50 million for the Next Generation Warning System (NGWS)
In a June 5 statement from APTS’s president and CEO Kate Riley noted that “as drafted, the House Appropriations Labor-H Subcommittee Appropriations Bill misses an opportunity to extend a desperately needed lifeline to local public media stations that continue to be devastated by the rescission of public media funding last summer.”
To rectify that, Riley said “we have asked Congress to create a new fund in the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Bill which would provide direct grants to local public broadcasting stations throughout the country through a Local Public Broadcasting Commission. Stations would be able to use the funding to support local station operations, local programming and essential community services.”
“With the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) dissolved, a new mechanism is needed to provide direct grants to stations to support their local public services,” she added. “This fund would provide the support needed to ensure the stabilization of local stations and continuity of services that are now at risk at stations nationwide due to the rescission of public broadcasting funding.”
The end of Federal funding and the CPB has been particularly tough on public media because by statute over 70% of the annual appropriation to CPB went to local stations.
“With that funding now gone, many local stations throughout the country are reeling with some struggling to survive,” Riley said. “Stations in communities small and large throughout the country are cutting local programming, staff, public services, operations and more. One station has already closed and an additional station just ceased broadcast operations. Without the restoration of local station funding, more will likely follow suit.”
The group did stress however that it was “grateful that the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee today recognized the essential role that public television plays in the nation’s civil defense, public safety and homeland security. The subcommittee’s recommendation of continued funding of $50 million for the Next Generation Warning System (NGWS) will help ensure public broadcasters are able to meet their public safety missions and provide the highest level of resilient and reliable public safety and homeland security services to communities throughout the country.”
“The NGWS grant program at FEMA enhances public broadcasting stations’ ability to provide alert and warning and interoperable public safety communications and to incorporate emergency technology into lifesaving activities,” Riley said. “NGWS helps stations replace aging infrastructure that is essential to their ability to transmit alerts and warning and their other public safety missions. In addition, NGWS helps stations incorporate emerging technology to enhance those lifesaving activities.”
Riley also stressed that “we remain hopeful that funding for the Local Public Broadcasting Commission and Ready To Learn will be fully funded in the final FY 2027 appropriations bill that will support local stations’ ability to help keep Americans safe, to educate America’s children, and to connect Americans to their own communities and open doors to other hometowns across this country.”
For more information, visit www.apts.org.
