On Wednesday July 19, 2017, the House Appropriations and Budget Committees will vote on two bills that will affect public media funding.

Here’s a summary of what we know and what we can do.

The House Appropriations Committee, which approves funding levels for specific programs, will consider a draft bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. The draft bill provides:

• Full funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which directly distributes seed funding to your public radio & public television stations.
• Full funding for Ready To Learn, which supports rigorously researched and proven-effective educational content for children.
• No funding for Interconnection, which is the essential structure that enables you to receive station programming and public safety communications.

The House Budget Committee, which sets the overall spending limit for the federal government, will consider a Budget Resolution.

• In the past, the House Budget has recommended eliminating public media funding.
• While we do not have specific information on the proposals in the House Budget we anticipate this committee will propose elimination of funding for public broadcasting, a significant, but non-binding threat.

What you can do

The results of these congressional actions will determine the actions we must take to preserve funding for our stations.

You can ensure the best possible results for public media by emailing your Member of Congress in support of full public media funding here.

The more your lawmakers hear from you and your neighbors, the better chance we have to protect funding, particularly since these legislative proposals could be voted on by the full House next week.

We’ll update you on the results of your outreach here and via email. Sign up for email updates to be the first to know at protectmypublicmedia.org/join.