Urge Congress to Support Public Media Funding
In the coming weeks, Congress will take steps to finalize Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 federal funding for public media. The House FY 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill eliminates federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Interconnection, and Ready To Learn. The Senate version of the bill preserves these programs that are fundamental to ensuring public media stations can bring viewers and listeners high-quality noncommercial programming, local journalism, lifesaving emergency information, and support underserved early learners with effective educational content and outreach to nearly 99% of our country. As the debate over public media funding continues, encourage your Members of Congress to support the Senate’s proposals to safeguard federal funding. Enter your information and follow the prompts to send your message.
Instructions for placing your call: To get started, enter your information in the blue box on the right-hand side of your screen and click ‘Call Officials.’ Talking points to help guide your conversation will appear in the blue box. To connect with your congressional offices, scroll down and select ‘Call Officials.’ You will then receive a call at the number you provided, and you will be directed through the process. All fields, including your phone number, are required by congressional offices. For the mobile number field, please do not use dashes or hyphens.
The House bill remains a cause for concern because ultimately the Senate and House must negotiate final funding. Cuts to public media funding would impact your station’s ability to offer the programs and public services that you’ve come to expect and depend on. Stations serving rural, remote, and tribal communities would be the most affected because they do not have access to local resources to close federal funding gaps. Maintaining broadcast service to these communities is critical because public media is often the only local media source available.