The President’s budget proposal to Congress recommends cutting public media funding. We are asking Congress to continue to invest in our nation’s public media stations and include public media funding in its budget.

Without this critical seed money, local stations may be forced to go off-air or to drastically cut the content and services our communities rely on. The lifesaving emergency communications, local programming, proven-effective educational content for children, trusted news, and other services our stations provide could disappear. It could even leave many rural communities without access to any local media at all.

The federal investment in public media is relatively small – roughly $1.35 per American annually. Cutting funding won’t erase our national debt. But it will devastate our communities. Public media funding enables local stations to provide virtually every household – over 98 percent of the U.S. – with thousands of hours of free, noncommercial programming and services.

We urge Congress to continue to invest in the public media system that protects, educates, and inspires our communities.