This morning, President Barack Obama released his last annual budget, and it includes federal funding for public media.

Today’s news is an encouraging and important step towards securing federal funding for public media for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017.

The President’s Budget is a non-binding proposal of the Administration’s top funding priorities. Public media funding’s inclusion is critical because the President’s Budget begins the congressional budget and appropriations process.

There will be many more steps to take in the coming months to safeguard federal investments in local public television and radio stations. You can ensure that your favorite public radio and television stations are protected every step of the way. Here’s how:

1. Sign up to be an official Protect My Public Media advocate on our homepage.
2. TELL your public media story by clicking here.
3. Invite your friends to sign up to be official campaign advocates.
4. Passionate about your public media stations? Pen a guest blog about why public media matters to you. Inquire at [email protected].

Federal funding for public media is critical seed money for local stations and enables them to provide you with free, high-quality, noncommercial programming and services. Public media funding is a small part of the President’s Budget but it’s an irreplaceable funding stream for local stations.

Working together, we can protect the stations that educate, inform and inspire us every day.