Rep. Dan Goldman, Bill Nye Discuss Importance of Protecting Public Broadcasting, Condemn Trump’s Rescissions Package

 

 

Washington, D.C. — Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10) hosted renowned kids’ science education advocate Bill Nye, “the Science Guy,” to highlight the vital role public broadcasting plays in K–12 education and community resilience. Following the Senate’s narrow approval earlier this week, House Republicans this morning passed President Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package, which eliminates all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). 

 

Congressman Goldman led an amendment to strike the proposed cuts to CPB, an effort co-sponsored by 34 Democratic colleagues. House Republicans rejected the amendment, voting instead to gut critical support for public media that millions of Americans rely on for educational, cultural, and emergency programming. 

 

The Republican-backed rescissions package deals a devastating blow to our democratic institutions at home, American leadership abroad, and the countless American citizens who rely on public broadcasting for emergency alerts, local news, and educational programming.  

 

CPB-funded public media reaches nearly 99.7% percent of the American population, and its funding finances over 1,500 public television and radio stations across the country, supporting approximately 20,000 local jobs. 

 

In addition to emergency response systems and local journalism, federal funding for CPB also enables public broadcasting to support educational content that parents nationwide rely on to help their children learn, averaging 16 million monthly users and more than 350 million monthly streams across digital platforms, allowing people at all income levels and from all parts of the country to access consistent, high-quality, educational content for free.