PUBCASTERS WARNED ON ‘LOOSE TALK’ OF REPLACING ANNUAL APPROPRIATIONS
Public broadcasters failed last week to reach a consensus on a trust fund they are seeking from Congress in exchange for early return of public TV’s analog spectrum. PBS had called a meeting of officials of the Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS), Corp. for Public Bcstg. and NPR to resolve differences over trust fund proposals (CD July 1 p6). Although the discussions were “very positive and very constructive,” no specific agreement was reached, a PBS spokeswoman said. The differences center on the voluntary nature of the APTS proposal and suggestions from PBS that a $5-10 billion payment to the trust fund from analog spectrum auction proceeds replace annual federal appropriations.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
“It’s dangerous to be making public statements about a trust fund to replace the annual appropriations,” APTS Pres. John Lawson told us. One reason, he said, was that there wasn’t any realistic valuation of the spectrum held by public TV. Also, he said, such “loose talk” about replacing the appropriation in the run up to the proposed Senate reauthorization of the Public Bcstg. Act would give some in Congress “an excuse to avoid acting on reauthorization or attempt to cut our funding.” Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) has called a July 13 hearing on CPB reauthorization. “It’s extremely important that Congress reauthorizes the annual appropriation,” Lawson said.
APTS’s trust fund proposal was based on a series of consultations with member stations as well as a survey of senior congressional staffers it had commissioned, Lawson said. The survey of 150 staffers by the research firm Wirthlin Worldwide showed that 69% of the staffers, crossing party lines, believed that Congress would support additional funding for public TV’s educational services. “That’s one reason we are suggesting that a trust fund be tied to a specific purpose in addition to the annual appropriation and that purpose be tied to education,” Lawson said. There also was “specific advice” from members of Congress that “we do not talk about replacing annual appropriations,” he said, but seek funding from the auction proceeds in addition to annual appropriations.
While the APTS proposal would have all trust fund money go straight to member stations, other proposals would send a chunk to PBS. But a July 30 APTS online survey of stations showed that 72% of the stations want all the money to go to the stations and only 6% would support most to PBS. Defending the proposal that funds go directly to stations, Lawson said the licenses to the spectrum are held by the stations. Besides, the current model ensures that most of the federal funds flow directly to stations, he said, and they in turn choose to reaggregate it to PBS. “That’s what we will be looking at under a trust fund scenario as well.”
NPR and CPB also had concerns about trading annual appropriations for a trust fund, he said. Any method of administering the proposed trust fund that would ensure the money went straight to the stations would likely diminish the role of the CPB. APTS has discussed its proposal with the CPB, Lawson said: “I think they are open minded about it. In our conception, CPB would administer any trust fund.” He said the CPB shared the concerns with APTS and public radio that “if all we get is a dollar to dollar replacement of the annual appropriations we haven’t gained much and the danger is you could end up with less funding if you are not careful.”
Public broadcasters backing replacement of appropriations argue the trust fund would free them from govt. dependency. But Lawson said it was “hugely unrealistic” for anyone to believe that Congress would ever give up oversight of CPB funding. “It’s been made clear to us that even if funding comes from a trust fund, Congress would maintain close oversight of how trust fund revenue is distributed,” he said: “ A trust fund does not equal independence from Congress. And if it’s what we want we will never get a trust fund.” Lawson said he expected the trust fund issue to be raised at the July 13 Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Asked if public broadcasters could come up with a unified proposal then, he said: “All I can say is, gee, I really hope so. It will be a shame if we are up there with conflicting ideas about funding we don’t have and a trust fund that remains a long shot at best.”
The PBS spokesman said the dialog on the trust fund that started among stakeholders was a very good starting point toward a unified position. “So I would say we are closer to an unified position than we were even a week ago. But it’s not going to happen overnight.”