Claim:   Congressional recommendations currently under consideration would cut $115 million in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Status:   True.

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, 2006]

House Republicans just voted to slash funding for NPR and PBS this year. We stopped them last year. We can stop them again. Can you ask 3 friends to sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS? http://www.civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting

Origins:   Although a long-outdated piece decrying supposed upcoming cuts in funding for the NEA, NPR, PBS, and Sesame Street has been circulating for years (it addressed legislation already voted upon way back in 1995), recent congressional efforts have brought the issue to public attention again.

In June 2006, the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees health and education funding voted to cut federal funding provided to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes money to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. The proposed cuts would reduce the corporation's 2007 budget by $115 million, a 23% decrease in funding. So far the budget cuts are only a subcommittee recommendation; they will not take effect unless they are approved by the full House Appropriations Committee and both houses of Congress.

Similar budget cuts recommended by the subcommittee in June 2005 were overturned through lobbying efforts.

Last updated:   8 June 2006

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  Sources:

    Klein, Rick.   "GOP Takes Aim at PBS Funding."

    The Boston Globe.   8 June 2006.