House of Representatives in the United States approves the cutting of public service
The money will be withdrawn from Corporation for Public Broadcasting and corresponds to the entire planned federal appropriation for the next two financial years.
About two-thirds would be distributed to more than 1,500 locally owned radio and TV stations, of which almost half make radio for rural areas.
« This becomes disruptive to millions of Americans who depend on them for news and information to make decisions and participate in social life, » says Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CPB.
The reduction must also be approved in the Senate in order to take effect.
CPB, which is privately registered and non-profit, responds by suing the Trump administration which one believes is trying to control its board, states Npr.
NPR chief Katherine Maher is now urging the Senate to stop the reduction.
« Americans who are dependent on local, independent radio stations’ service around the United States, especially in rural areas with a low level of service, will suffer, » Maher said in a statement.
Even the American Public service radio company NPR and the broadcaster CBS recently sued the Trump administration. PBS believes that Trump exceeds his powers and engages in « opinion discrimination » when he claims that the news reporting is negative to Republicans.
« Regardless of possible political disagreements on the role of public television, our constitution and our laws forbid the president from acting as arbitrators of the PBS program, as did it by trying to reduce the financing of PBS, » the lawyer writes in the lawsuit.
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