WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republican-led House Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee has declined to provide funding for local public broadcasting station infrastructure in its fiscal year 2027 appropriations bill.
That led the head of America’s Public Television Stations to express disappointment for the lack of federal dollars to help PBS and non-member educational noncommercial TV stations serve their viewers in the best way possible.
“As drafted, the CJS Appropriations Bill misses an opportunity to provide local stations with $100 million in important funding for much needed infrastructure investments essential to the continued reliability of local service through the restoration of the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP),” says Kate Riley, President/CEO of America’s Public Television Stations (APTS).
Since the mid-1980s, PTFP, administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the Department of Commerce, has helped local public broadcasting stations build and maintain critical infrastructure needed for the reliable delivery of broadcast services to all Americans. The program also provided emergency funding for stations that lost facilities in disasters.
“This program was last funded in FY 2010, but with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) dismantled and local station funding rescinded, stations are struggling to maintain services and this infrastructure support is more important than ever,” Riley believes. She cites a 2017 CPB study which found that public broadcasters face a backlog of over $300 million in overdue infrastructure improvements and the backlog has only continued to grow in the intervening years. “The same study found that 86% of television stations and 75% of radio stations postpone replacing their technology equipment when faced with a lack of funds, a very harsh reality for local public broadcasting stations that have lost all of their federal funding support in last summer’s rescission,” Riley says.
With many stations now struggling to stay operational, critical infrastructure support is needed. Thus, she argues, “[It] is essential that PTFP funding is reappropriated in FY 2027. A funding level of $100 million in FY 2027 will help address some of the most pressing needs of local stations and help stave off catastrophic broadcast failures for some of the most at-risk stations, including those in the most remote corners of this country, from Native American tribal lands to small rural communities and areas that have limited access to cable or other broadcasting services.”
