[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2172]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       PRESIDENT BUSH'S BUDGET TARGETS PUBLIC BROADCASTING AGAIN

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Well, it's a new year and again the Bush budget 
targets public broadcasting. Year after year, they've attempted to chop 
away at that investment. Year after year Congress rejects it.
  This year it is a $420 million reduction, including $200 million 
that's already been allocated for this year. This assault on public 
broadcasting is not just undermining the digital conversion, the 
education and public affairs that we have grown to rely on, it's a 
direct assault at small-town and rural America where it's more 
expensive to reach and they don't have the donor base to provide it for 
themselves.
  The irony is that San Francisco, New York, Washington and, dare I 
say, Portland, Oregon will always have public broadcasting. But if this 
Bush budget is adopted, it's going to decimate public broadcasting in 
rural and small-town America.
  Please join the over 110 members of the bipartisan Public 
Broadcasting Caucus to again reject this assault on public 
broadcasting.

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