The President’s annual budget request to Congress recommends increasing investments in public media. Now, it’s up to Congress to determine the amount of federal funding public media stations will receive.

We could see a House budget proposal to eliminate public media funding next month. Later this year, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will put together their respective funding bills.

With so many crucial funding decisions right around the corner, we must tell our lawmakers to back the President’s request to boost public media funding. Fill out your information and send your messages now.

Through our collective outreach each year, we’ve been able to safeguard investments in local public media stations. To preserve your stations and their essential public services, we must seize every opportunity to advocate because there is no public media without federal funding.

Public media funding ensures your access to local journalism, emergency alerts, educational resources for your children, and local music and cultural programming that you value and trust.

These services are made possible for about $1.40 per American annually.

With a growing number of local newspapers shutting down and subscription-based media services on the rise, we must protect our local public service.

Members of Congress need to hear from their constituents that public media stations are essential sources of free, over-the-air and online information to Americans across the country and how the federal investment supports this service. The messages you send now will inform the positions your Members of Congress will take on public media funding throughout the budget and appropriations process this year.

Instructions for sending your messages:

To send emails to your Members of Congress, fill out your information to the right and select ‘Email Your Lawmaker.’ After your lawmakers populate in the blue bar, scroll down, and select ‘Send Emails.’ All fields included on the form, including the mobile number, are required by congressional offices. For the mobile number field, please do not use dashes or hyphens.