By Summer Jarro
Special to RBR+TVBR
When public television stations receive federal funds it ensures the stations are able to provide all types of programming to the community and everyone is able to gain access.
The United States Senate provided funding to public broadcasting stations in the Fiscal Year 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services Education Appropriations Bill.
On Aug. 23, Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, praised the US Senate for their agreement on funding in a statement.
In the statement Butler said, “America’s Public Television Stations are delighted that the Senate has approved legislation providing full funding of $445 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Fiscal Year 2021, $20 million in FY 2019 for an annual interconnection and infrastructure account, and $27.7 million in FY 2019 for the Ready To Learn program, a competitive grant program at the Department of Education that supports public television’s essential work – on the air, online and on the-ground – in early childhood education.”
Public television helps many preschool children learn skills for school and life while also supporting two million US teachers, according to Butler’s statement.
Butler continued to explain the importance of public broadcasting sharing how it is an essential tool used to communicate to the public in times of emergency, host candidate debates or other government events and offer hours of programming on a wide array of topics for viewers to watch.
He thanked the bipartisan leadership of the Appropriations Committee for their work on getting the bill together.
“The broad support for public media funding among both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate, which approved the bill on a vote of 85-7 today, reflects the overwhelming support the American people have consistently given to our service in communities across the country, and we couldn’t be more proud of this substantial vote of confidence in our work,” Butler said in his statement.
