House Approves Higher Public Broadcasting Funding

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved $565 million in advance funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in Fiscal Year 2024.


The approved funding was included in the FY 2022 Departments of Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.

“This is a historic day for public television,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations. “The House of Representatives has approved the largest increase in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in half a century, in recognition of the extraordinary work our stations have done in America’s communities and the exciting potential for even greater service in education, public safety and civic leadership in the years to come.”

APTS is also appreciative of the recommended level funding of $20 million in FY 2022 for station interconnection, the backbone of the public broadcasting system, supporting nationwide emergency alerting, providing local stations with national programming, connecting stations with each other, and creating operational efficiencies.

It is also “very pleased” that $31.776 million, an increase of $2.276 million, in FY 2022 has been recommended for Ready To Learn, a competitive grant program at the Department of Education that supports public television’s essential work — on-air, online and on-the-ground — in early childhood education, to help build science, math and literacy skills of children between the ages of two and eight.

“America’s public television stations are ready to do more, to help revolutionize education in a post-pandemic America, to train more of America’s adults for better jobs, to provide more essential public safety communications services, to create a more well-informed citizenry that considers issues in a civil and constructive manner, and to use a portion of our licensed spectrum to do more to enhance telehealth, national security, Smart Cities connections, transportation efficiency, precision agriculture and more,” Butler said.