How much does npr cost taxpayers

Allowance not included in House bill because of lack of authorizing legislation. Transition Quarter funding, during which federal budget year changed from July to September. Includes funds appropriated for the Satellite Replacement Fund.

Similarly, the President's budget request did not provide separate funding for digital or, where applicable, interconnection replacement, but would have permitted CPB to use a portion of its general appropriation to fund both. Reduced 5. There was significant legislative interest and activity regarding federal funding for CPB from the end of the th Congress through the th Congress. During the "lame duck" period of the th Congress in November , Representative Lamborn sought to have his bill considered for floor action in the House, but this action was defeated by a vote of In response, Representative Earl Blumenauer OR defended public broadcasting by stating that "National Public Radio is one of the few areas where the American public can actually get balanced information.

On January 5, , Representative Lamborn introduced H. The first bill, like its predecessor H. The second bill would have prohibited federal funding to organizations incorporated for specified purposes related to 1 broadcasting, transmitting, and programming over noncommercial educational radio broadcast stations, networks, and systems; 2 cooperating with foreign broadcasting systems and networks in international radio programming and broadcasting; 3 assisting and supporting such noncommercial educational radio broadcasting pursuant to the Public Broadcasting Act of ; or 4 acquiring radio programs from such organizations.

In effect, it would have prohibited any individual public radio station from using federal funding to engage in transactions with NPR Inc. Both bills were referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Furthermore, restrictions on the authority of CPB—a Congressionally chartered, independent, nonprofit organization—to make competitive grants to NPR, or any other public broadcasting entity, is misguided.

Other legislation was introduced addressing federal support for public broadcasting. On March 15, , Representative Lamborn introduced H. The House Rules Committee passed H. No further action was taken on this bill. Other proposals in the th Congress addressed federal funding for public broadcasting.

On January 20, , the Republican Study Group, a conservative caucus comprised of Members of Congress, released its list of proposed budget cuts, including elimination of CPB's appropriations starting in FY At the same time, Representative Ryan WI , the chairman of the House Committee on the Budget for the th Congress, proposed a new continuing resolution that would have set the rest of the FY budget at FY levels excluding defense, homeland security, and veterans' programs.

In the th Congress, several bills were introduced addressing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting System, and issues related to these institutions and their funding.

As the title indicates, this bill would have eliminated all direct federal funding for NPR as well as federal funding to sell or acquire NPR-based programming content.

The bill would have revised disaster relief law to include public broadcasting facilities, among other provisions.

On July 11, , S. This bill was incorporated into H. On January 30, , Representative Lamborn introduced H. In an age of multiple cable channel options, digital radio, and computerized digital streaming, some ask whether there is a need for federal appropriations to support public broadcasting. And while that's not negligible, it's a lot less than many people seem to think. Though it should be noted that member stations are separate entities that both produce their own programming and take if from other sources -- and they aren't the ones that fired Williams.

If you include member stations under the "NPR" umbrella, then the CPB allocation -- and, if you want to get into public television as well, CPB in general -- would be fair game. All this talk of money brings us back to the man who kicked off the controversy in the first place -- Juan Williams. Twitter Facebook. Please enter email address to continue. Please enter valid email address to continue. Originally, the Act was called the Public Television Act and was only targeted toward television. After several last-minute revisions, former U.

Without this addition, NPR could not have been formed. In , NPR became the first media organization to broadcast from the U. Senate floor when it covered debates over the return of control over the Panama Canal to Panama. In , NPR opened its first international office in London. In , NPR finished the construction of its satellite network to improve distribution of its content. From its founding until the early s, NPR was almost entirely dependent upon funding from the federal government through CPB.

NPR steadily expanded its programming, staff, and size throughout the s and s, resulting in rising costs. By the early s, NPR was running an unsustainable budget deficit. In , the U. CPB imposed new bylaws onto NPR to allow the managing board to have more oversight over discretionary spending. Rather than giving the bulk of its financing directly to NPR to be distributed to member stations, CPB began giving directly to member stations to purchase NPR content, a system that has continued to the present day.

NPR paid off its debt in three years. The organization steadily raised its funding from contributions and commercial deals to close its deficit. If their programming, much of which I personally enjoy, can survive in the free market, more power to them. If it cannot, why should taxpayers have to make up the difference? By Special to The Denver Post. More in Opinion.