Hill Appropriators Supportive of CPB Funding; Public Broadcasters Ready for Battle

“It’s not likely” House Appropriations will agree with Trump’s bid to nix CPB funding, said Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla. “I don’t think the support is there” for ending or reducing CPB’s federal subsidy, in contrast to the “very strong bipartisan support” for maintaining its existing appropriations level, he said. He said he expects most of his colleagues will make that case at the subcommittee and committee level as they evaluate appropriations legislation in the coming months. House Appropriations lawmakers have until mid-March to submit proposals for budgetary language at the subcommittee level.

Senate Appropriations is similarly unlikely to agree to anything other than maintaining CPB’s current funding level, said Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., a member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over CPB appropriations. “I’m not in favor” of zeroing out CPB’s funding, she said, saying she'll urge subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Mo., to reach the same conclusion. Blunt last year strongly supported CPB appropriations (see 1704040079).

Public broadcasting advocates are “well-positioned” to fight for funding, said America’s Public Television Stations CEO Patrick Butler. Public broadcasting officials believe allies in Congress, a robust lobbying campaign and widespread trust for public broadcasting will lead to CPB being fully funded in spite of Trump’s position, they said. The widespread negative public perception of media hasn’t made it harder for public media to fight for funding, Butler said. Americans have named PBS their most trusted institution as compared with “courts of law, commercial cable and broadcast television, newspapers, digital platforms” for 15 years in a row, said the results of a survey PBS released Wednesday.

Vice President Mike Pence has been viewed as an ally of public broadcasting (see 1702240070), but the administration now twice seeking to zero out CPB’s funding shows it’s unlikely Pence can dictate the terms of the administration’s budget proposals, Butler said. “He was in a different position” as a member of Congress and governor of Indiana, Butler said. “It’s disappointing to have this battle every year,” he said. “I’m always concerned about federal funding for public broadcasting,” said Rick Johnson, general manager of WGCU Fort Myers, Florida.

Many legislators have already pledged support for funding CPB, including Cole, Butler said. “We take great heart from that,” Butler said. “We think the Appropriations committees see our way.” Draft House and Senate budget bills included full funding for CPB and formal introduction of the legislation is expected in March, Butler said. The Senate version of the bill also includes funding for improvements to the interconnection infrastructure that helps PBS and public TV stations share content, though the House bill doesn't, he said. Congress’ deal earlier this month to raise federal spending caps means “more flexibility” and is “good news” for any entity hopeful of federal funding, Butler said.

Eliminating CPB’s federal funding would have the same effect on public broadcasting as pulling a loose thread does on a sweater, Johnson said. Stations in rural and less affluent areas would likely go silent and become unable to participate in PBS group purchasing of programming, driving up the costs of the stations that remain and making it harder for them to continue, he said. “It would undermine the whole system,” Johnson said: Federal funding is “absolutely critical to the health of public media in this country.”

WTJU Charlottesville, operated by the University of Virginia, counts on CPB community service grants for one-seventh of its budget, said General Manager Nathan Moore. “In rural communities that are underserved by broadcast media overall, CPB funds can account for 30 percent or more of a station's revenue.” Small and rural broadcasters -- particularly those on radio -- are an important component of emergency services, Moore said. CPB funding enables local stations to have “people on the ground” in those communities “with the explicit priority of community service before profit,” he said.

Public TV groups intend to push for funding with an active “Protect My Public Media” campaign, motivating consumers to pressure on legislators. Butler credited that with leading to CPB funding last year, while Johnson said the effort led to an increase in membership in the campaign. More than 36,000 people have joined the campaign in the week since Trump’s FY 2019 budget proposal release and close to 100,000 emails were sent to Congress as part of the effort, Protect My Public Media Wednesday emailed members. Public broadcasters also are informing their donors about the White House’s budget proposal and the need for pressure, Johnson said. Stations aren’t yet running TV spots about the funding push, but they could as the budget progresses, Butler said.

Arguments in favor of the administration’s CPB proposal likely won’t get traction among House and Senate Appropriations this year but could gain more support over the next five years, said Steven Titch, an R Street Institute telecom and tech associate fellow. The $445 million in annual federal funding CPB currently receives is “very little” in the scope of the $4.4 trillion FY 2019 the administration proposed and thus “from a political standpoint is almost not worth getting into a big argument about,” said Titch, also a Heartland Institute policy adviser. Members of Congress don’t want to consider ending the funding because of the importance older constituents place on PBS content, he said. But as alternate content platforms like Netflix and Sirius increase market share against broadcasters, it will become “more important to ask questions about whether PBS and others are still delivering something unique” that other services can’t provide, Titch said. He noted Sesame Workshop’s 2015 five-season deal with HBO to first air Sesame Street episodes on the premium cable network.