1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Please do everything you can to reinstate funding for public media. Public media saves lives with emergency alerts and vital information. National, private news networks only tell people about emergencies, they don’t provide the hyperlocal information needed to keep families safe, whether it’s a hurricane, safe drinking water, earthquake, blizzard, drought, wildfire, or some man-made emergency. The CPB was demonized in congress for the actions of PBS and NPR which only receives 30% of the funding that was cut. The funding cuts will affect rural communities the most who already struggle with inability to afford internet access or cellular reception, and can’t access vital information about their own community. Other countries invest as much as $100 per citizen, and even before the One Big Beautiful Bill cut funding, we only spent $1.60 per citizen. Investment in public media safeguards individuals and has also been shown to be an investment in the health and strength of democracy. Please take away congressional approval of public media funding going forward, and instead tie public media funding to a direct tax or licensing fee to ensure funding stability for the rural communities where it is the only source of local news and information. Thank you for your work on behalf of the American people.