House Subpanels Advance Bills Killing CPB Funds for FY26, Decreasing Commerce Money

The House Appropriations Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) subcommittees advanced their FY 2024 spending bills Friday with proposals to significantly cut annual funding to NTIA and other tech-related Commerce Department agencies and end CPB’s traditional “two-year advance funding status” (see 2307130069). The subpanels advanced their respective bills on voice votes that belied vocal Democratic opposition to the proposed cuts that are expected to reappear when the full Appropriations Committee considers the measures.

House Appropriations LHHS advanced its bill without any mention of CPB funding, meaning the program wouldn’t have any advanced federal funding for FY 2026. Congress allocated CPB $535 million for FY 2025 in the FY 2023 omnibus appropriations package (see 2212210077). President Joe Biden proposed increasing its annual appropriation to $575 million for FY26, up 7%. The measure also doesn’t include funding for CPB system interconnection and infrastructure for FY24. The FY23 omnibus allocated $60 million for that purpose. It also doesn’t mention funding for the Education Department’s Ready to Learn educational programming grant program. The House-side Republican Study Committee in June proposed zeroing out CPB funding (see 2306150063). Then-President Donald Trump repeatedly sought to zero out CPB funding (see 2002100056).

Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, who’s also lead Democrat on LHHS, during the markup session called the subcommittee’s bill “shameful, but based on where” the GOP “majority has taken this entire process, sadly, it is not surprising.” While “I am horrified by this bill, it tells the story of where the majority seeks to take education in this country,” she said: “Republicans have made it clear they are opposed to public education and seek to destroy it.” The measure “is no messaging bill,” DeLauro said. “This is their view of America. I am taking Republicans at their word” that “this is what you want to do.”

“I don’t pretend this is a perfect bill,” but “our nation remains mired in high inflation, which has only been worsened by the massive infusion of government spending, both during and immediately after the” COVID-19 pandemic, said LHHS Chairman Robert Aderholt, R-Ala. “We cannot continue to make our constituents pay for … reckless [federal] spending. At some point, we must stop the out-of-control spending spree that we have seen and experienced in this nation.” A summary House Appropriations released before the markup said the measure would end CPB’s traditional “two-year advance funding status” and force the program to “compete with other programs in the bill for annual funding.”

“This is a dark day for America’s Public Television Stations,” said group CEO Patrick Butler in a news release responding to the LHHS bill vote. “We are only one of the casualties of a severe cutback that would also affect other important national institutions.” Butler predicted during a February APTS event that the FY24 budget cycle would be a “daunting” environment for seeking CPB funding (see 2302270075). “We remain hopeful that the strong bipartisan support for public media, both in Congress and among the American people, will ultimately result in full funding for CPB, system interconnection and infrastructure, and Ready To Learn as the appropriations process moves forward,” Butler said Friday.

House Appropriations CJS advanced its bill with cuts to NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and DOJ Antitrust Division intact. NTIA would get $54 million in FY24, an almost 13% decrease from FY23 and a more than 50% drop from what Biden sought. The National Institute of Standards and Technology would get more than $1.47 billion, more than 13% down from FY23 and an almost 10% drop from the administration’s proposal. The Patent Office (PTO) would get almost $4.2 billion, a 1% decrease from FY23 but level with Biden’s request. Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security would get $191 million, level with FY23 but 14% less than the administration sought. DOJ Antitrust would get more than $192.7 million, a 14% drop from FY23 and more than 40% less than what Biden proposed.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, revealed Thursday that the CJS subpanel bill it advanced earlier that day on a 28-1 vote would allocate NTIA $62 million, level with FY23 but 45% less than Biden wanted. NIST would get more than $1.44 billion, a more than 14% decrease from FY23 and an 11% drop from the administration’s proposal. PTO would get almost $4.2 billion, the same as the House CJS bill. BIS would get $191 million, also the same as in the House measure. DOJ Antitrust would get $278 million, a more than 23% increase from FY23 but 14% less than Biden sought.

House Appropriations CJS “produced a strong bill that right-sizes agencies and programs,” said subpanel Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky. “We did this by scaling back many unsustainable spending levels to” FY 20-2022 “levels or lower.” But ranking member Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., said the bill fails “to ensure the safety and economic prosperity of the American people.”