[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14767]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     BIG BIRD IS NOT A BILLIONAIRE

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, last week, we were told that Big Bird 
was a billionaire and did not need Federal support. Not true on either 
account.
  The Sesame Street Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization, 
supports children's activities in 120 countries around the world for 
less than $100 million a year. Yet, Sesame Street, now in its 36th 
season, gets only $17.5 million, about 10 percent of that, from Federal 
sources.
  The Federal money helped make it possible for stations to operate and 
to buy the programming.
  The bottom line is, Big Bird is not a billionaire, and taking away 
the Federal money, he would still be here, but it would diminish the 
program and make it harder or impossible for kids to watch him on 
local, free, noncommercial public television, especially in small 
cities and rural communities.

                              {time}  1015

  I urge my colleagues to visit their local stations during the summer 
break and find out the truth about Big Bird.

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