[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4171-4172]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              STOPPING THE ASSAULT ON PUBLIC BROADCASTING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, the Republican assault on public 
broadcasting continues. We are told that tomorrow we will be 
considering H.R. 1076, which really goes further than anything that we 
have considered to date. It would prohibit the purchase of any content 
for public broadcasting resources using Federal money.
  Now, I think we are going to see in the course of the debate some 
unfortunate, and I hope unintended, consequences.

[[Page 4172]]

  It is ironic that my Republican friends who came to Congress this 
time with a pledge of regular order, that everybody would have 72 hours 
to review legislation online, that we are going to have the committee 
process working in a robust fashion, have again decided to violate 
their own rules by rushing this to the floor without extensive 
committee work and without being available for Americans to review this 
legislation for 72 hours.
  I don't understand why, but I can guess that if they really want to 
try to pass this, they would be far better off rushing it, not having 
it carefully examined.
  First and foremost, the whole point of public broadcasting is the 
development and broadcast of content that doesn't have commercial 
value, that doesn't inspire the networks, the channels, radio and 
television, to be able to sell advertising for this particular type of 
program.
  You will search in vain reviewing the thousands of commercial radio 
and television stations, cable channels and networks, to find the type 
of educational programming that we rely on PBS for, for example, to 
supply to our children. There is no content for our children on the 
vast commercial sea of broadcasting that doesn't come from people who 
are trying to sell something to our kids, not educate them.

                              {time}  1020

  You're at a time when news is shrinking in the commercial arena. 
Newspapers are getting thinner. Broadcast networks are withdrawing 
correspondence from overseas at precisely the time that the American 
public needs to know what is happening in the Middle East, in Japan. At 
precisely the time commercial coverage is shrinking, public 
broadcasting has actually expanded coverage and, in fact, at times 
devotes a lot of time and attention to boring news--boring news which 
often we find is some of the most important for us to understand.
  This proposal would prohibit not just purchase of NPR, which is the 
target. Ironically, National Public Radio has a miniscule level of 
support from the Federal Government. Most of this money flows to 
provide content and programing to smaller stations in rural and small-
town America, where they don't have the financial base to be able to 
provide robust public broadcasting.
  We're always going to have public broadcast stations in New York and 
San Francisco, Los Angeles. Even Portland, Oregon, a medium-size city, 
will have that resource. It will be diminished if we don't have the 
program support, but it will be there. In rural Burns, Oregon, where it 
costs 11 times as much to send a signal, that's where it's going to be 
hit.
  Now, denying the ability to purchase content doesn't mean just NPR. 
It's ``Car Talk.'' It's ``Prairie Home Companion.'' And most 
significantly, in my mind, it is some of the special programs that have 
been developed for the Pacific Northwest. Again, no commercial station 
would do it because no advertiser will pay for it. But it serves a 
market for important news that people need to have about their 
communities. It's not just in the Pacific Northwest. It's in the Rocky 
Mountain States, in the Upper Midwest. In fact, some of these stations 
are the sole source of programming. And so by prohibiting the use of 
this resource, it's going to cut them off at the knees.
  Well, that's unfortunate because public broadcasting is the most 
trusted name in American media. It's why Republicans and Democrats 
alike don't want it cut. In fact, some would even increase it. I hope 
my colleagues will listen to what the American public wants and reject 
this legislation.

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