[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 32 (Wednesday, February 29, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H1020]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


   WELCOMING PUBLIC BROADCASTING COMMUNITY TO CAPITOL HILL THIS WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, Senator Olympia Snowe 
announced that she wouldn't run for reelection--not that she couldn't 
win, but that she didn't want to, not in this environment. This storied 
representative will be a loss to the institution here. But it doesn't 
have to be that way, Mr. Speaker.
  This week on Capitol Hill we have friends who have joined us from the 
public broadcasting community, representing public television stations 
across the country. Today, the Women's Garden Club of America are here 
in force.
  Now, these are people that have an approach that can help us unwind 
the problems that we have here in Congress. Public broadcasting is 
America's voice, and for most of America it's the only locally owned 
and managed source of news and local interest. It's commercial free. It 
is focused on our kids, our culture, our environment.
  Last year, amidst the Tea Party effort to defund public broadcasting, 
we had a poll that showed 78 percent of Americans wanted the funding to 
remain the same or be increased. Two-thirds of Republicans wanted it to 
be held steady or increased. Now, from this year's budget it hopefully 
appears that we've dodged that bullet--maybe some people have come to 
their senses. Americans were heard from coast to coast: Don't play 
games with public broadcasting.
  We've got a few minor holes in the President's budget, but I hope we 
can come together in a bipartisan way, listen to Americans, listen to 
these representatives, and do it right.
  With the Women's Garden Club of America, we have a group--primarily 
women--who are focused not just on a garden club, but a fight for civic 
improvement through the connection to nature and to one another. Their 
work in policy is broad and deep. Their position papers on supporting 
clean air, clean water, climate change, public lands take issues that 
around here get lost in a partisan theological fog and make clear why 
they're important, how to represent American interests, and not the 
narrow theological, the partisan that get us bogged down.

                              {time}  1010

  Mr. Speaker, I hope that Members will listen to groups like our 
public broadcasting supporters and the Garden Club about simple, 
commonsense approaches to support fundamental American values and get 
off the partisan merry-go-round. We should listen to them. We should 
work with them. America will be a better place, and so will Congress.

                          ____________________