Public Media & Federal Funding

On June 3, a rescission memo was delivered to Congress proposing to claw back critical federal funding for public media stations nationwide, cutting funds already approved by Congress for the next two fiscal years. This begins a 45-day window for Congress to act—potentially at any time.

We need your help now. This is the most serious threat that public media has ever faced. Please find out more at Protect My Public Media.

We rely on a strong national public media system. It creates the PBS and NPR shows you love, like All Creatures Great and Small, NATURE and All Things Considered. It provides the infrastructure for nationwide emergency alerts that keep Americans safe. It creates a research and content pipeline for beloved PBS KIDS programming like Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Wild Kratts and Alma’s Way.

Locally, federal funds provide nearly 16% of our budget—these are funds that are not easily replaced. They are the strong foundation for our storytelling about Nebraska history, arts, culture and creativity; our award-winning newsroom that publishes more than 1,000 stories each year; our more than 200 hours of live local high school, collegiate and professional sports; our work with Nebraska children, families and educators using PBS KIDS resources at more than 50 local events per year; and our statewide transmitters that provide lifesaving emergency warnings and Amber Alerts.

These services are why public broadcasting was created, and it’s why we’re entrusted with public funding: to serve Nebraskans with trusted, valued and essential resources that no other media company can provide.

Losing federal funding would have a far-reaching impact, likely dismantling the nation’s nearly 60-year-old public media system and jeopardizing universal access, the core mission of public media, especially in rural areas.

Here are three ways that you can support public media right now:

1. Sign up with the trusted advocacy organization Protect My Public Media.
   
2. Bookmark and share this page: NebraskaPublicMedia.org/funding.
   
3. Share your love of Nebraska Public Media with your family, friends and neighbors and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn. Use the hashtags #protectmypublicmedia and #viewerslikeme.

Even during these difficult times, we are steadfast in our mission to provide the programming, services and resources that you rely on every day.

Thank you for standing with us,

Stacey Decker
General Manager/CEO

On May 1, the President signed an Executive Order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to halt federal funding to PBS and NPR. It would stop both direct funding to PBS and NPR and restrict how local stations, including Nebraska Public Media, can use our federal funding.

We are deeply disappointed in this action and along with our national partners, we are carefully evaluating its potential impacts.

• It limits our ability to make independent and locally focused decisions about the programming and resources we provide to Nebraskans. This includes acquiring the PBS and NPR content that you and so many others enjoy every day.
• It fractures the strong local-national partnership that is the backbone of public media.

Even during this challenging time, we are steadfast in our commitment to provide every Nebraskan with trusted, valued and essential programs and services – just as we have for more than 70 years.

We are proud to be Nebraska’s storyteller and present a strong mix of national programming and local favorites such as Nebraska Stories, Big Red Wrap-Up, What If… and Friday LIVE – all with the help of federal dollars.

Here’s how Nebraskans benefit from a strong national public media system:

• It creates the PBS, NPR and PBS KIDS programs you love, rely on and trust.
• It supports public safety and our commitment to keep Nebraskans safe with 178 regional tornado warnings in one year.
• It sustains the efforts of our news team as journalists cover the state, publishing nearly 1,000 stories each year, with dozens of those shared nationally.
• It funds the high-quality PBS KIDS resources our education team uses to engage with Nebraska families at more than 50 local events yearly.
• It makes it possible for us to celebrate student athletes during more than 200 hours of local sports each year.

Nebraska Public Media has a strong base of support from many sources, including from people just like you. Federal funds are a vital part of that mix. They provide nearly 16 percent of our current budget and are not easily replaced.

Here are three ways that you can help:

1. Sign up for updates from the trusted advocacy organization Protect My Public Media.
   
2. Bookmark and share this page: NebraskaPublicMedia.org/funding.
   
3. Share your love of Nebraska Public Media with your family, friends and neighbors and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn. Use the hashtags #protectmypublicmedia and #viewerslikeme.

Now more than ever – public media matters. Thank you for your continuing support.

Sincerely,

Stacey Decker
General Manager/CEO

1. Sign up for alerts from Protect My Public Media. This trusted national organization is working to support public media nationwide.
   
2. Share your love for Nebraska Public Media with your friends and neighbors.
   Follow Nebraska Public Media and share our posts. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn. Talk about your favorite public media services and shows using #protectmypublicmedia and #viewerslikeme.
   
3. Donate to Nebraska Public Media.
   Federal funds are vital to the long-term health of public media here in Nebraska and nationwide. However, donations from our viewers and listeners like you are an important part of our base of support. Each year, Nebraska Public Media has a fundraising goal to supplement our federal, state and University appropriations, creating a unique public media partnership. Your donations are always gratefully accepted and will help us meet our goal for this year, or get a jump on next year’s budget. Thank you for supporting our work across the state.

The rescission package proposing to claw back all federal funding for public media has passed the House of Representatives. The request now moves to the Senate, where it can be approved by a simple majority of just 50 votes.

We have no timeline for a Senate vote, but the 45-day clock for all of Congress to act is still ticking with a deadline of midnight on Friday, July 18.

If the Senate approves, Nebraska Public Media stands to lose $4 million in annual funding.

The request delivered to Congress on June 3 proposes clawing back federal support for public media, funds that were previously approved for the next two fiscal years. Specifically, it would cut $1.1 billion of already appropriated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

This action starts a 45-day clock for Congress to vote on this measure, which it could do at any time.

During the 45-day window, the Administration can temporarily withhold any funding included in the plan. The House and the Senate can pass the package with a simple majority. Congress also has the option to change what’s included in the request.

If Congress does not get enough votes to pass the plan or chooses not to act on it, the funding must be released after 45 days.

A rescission package is a rarely used method to cut federal spending. It is a request from the Administration to eliminate federal funding that has already been approved by Congress.

Any loss of federal funds could impact the breadth and depth of our service to the state, including:

• Valuable storytelling that documents Nebraska history, arts, culture and ingenuity as featured on television and radio through programs like Nebraska Stories, Friday LIVE, What If…, JAM and Once Again.
• Our 24-hour radio service offering a mix of music, culture, national news from NPR and local reporting from our team of journalists. Our award-winning reporters produce nearly 1,000 stories per year, including daily reports from the yearly legislative session that keep Nebraskans informed.
• Our more than 200 hours of live broadcasts and streams of high school, college and professional sports, including NSAA high school championships, college sports from the University of Nebraska and Creighton, and professional volleyball from the Omaha Supernovas.
• Trusted educational events and professional development opportunities that prepare all children for success in school and support educators, parents and caregivers. In fiscal year 2023-24, we engaged more than 800 children and families in 20 local communities in intergenerational learning with our Nebraska Public Media and PBS KIDS educational resources.
• Essential emergency alerts and other public safety services that keep Nebraskans safe. In one year, we issued 178 regional tornado warnings on our network of FM radio transmitters. We also issue Amber Alerts across the state.

A significant cut or elimination of federal funding would critically damage public broadcasting as we know it today. It would be a serious threat to the existence of local public media stations, which then puts all of our programming and services at risk.

• These cuts will have an outsized impact on small stations in rural communities that rely heavily on federal funding to operate, putting the core mission of public broadcasting to be accessible to all at risk.
• It will disrupt the pipeline for trusted reporting that connects Nebraska to the nation and the nation to Nebraska through Morning Edition, All Things Considered and PBS News Hour.
• It will damage the creation and distribution of valued programs that inform, educate and entertain such as Masterpiece, FRONTLINE, NOVA, NATURE, Finding Your Roots, Antiques Roadshow and more.
• It will reduce the ability to offer free, educational media resources and valued PBS KIDS series such as Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Wild Kratts and Odd Squad – all supported by federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The U.S. Department of Education recently terminated the 2020-2025 Ready To Learn grant, which funded the development of PBS KIDS programming and educational resources, including PBS KIDS series such as Super Why, Odd Squad, Between the Lions and more recently Work It Out Wombats and Molly of Denali.

Ready To Learn was 30-year partnership between the Department of Education, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting designed to prepare kids for success in school and life. Its free, universally accessible, proven educational content served the more than 50 percent of U.S. kids who don’t attend preschool, particularly focusing on rural, low-income and multilingual communities.

In Nebraska, Ready To Learn grant funds served as the foundation of support for our early childhood initiatives. Ready To Learn supported learning neighborhoods in Fremont developed in partnership with local organizations that created connections, built on the community’s strengths and increased literacy. It also supported families and gave needed resources to early childhood educators. We had plans to take this model statewide with grant funds that have now been eliminated. Without consistent federal funding, our education work across the state will look different.

On May 1, an executive order was issued that restricts the ability for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to provide federal funds either directly or indirectly to PBS and NPR and also seeks to prevent local stations like Nebraska Public Media from spending any federal funds on services from PBS and NPR.

CPB is the private nonprofit set up by Congress to receive and distribute the federal funds allocated to public media. Most of the federal funding that CPB receives goes directly to local stations like Nebraska Public Media.

Federal funds represent nearly 16% of our budget. This order seeks to restrict how we can spend our programming dollars.

We are proud of our ability to make independent and locally focused decisions about the programming and resources we provide to Nebraskans. We have a strong local-national content mix, where shows celebrating Nebraska live alongside valued national programming from PBS and NPR.

On May 27, NPR and three member stations filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the May 1 executive order seeking to cease all federal funding going to NPR and PBS. On May 30, PBS, along with one member station, filed a similar lawsuit.

The suits describe the executive order as in violation of the First Amendment. They also argue that if stations are prohibited from using public funds to acquire programming from PBS or NPR, there would be significant impacts to the national organizations and local stations that put the mission of public media at risk.

Nebraska Public Media is not part of any lawsuit filed by either PBS or NPR.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. CPB strives to support programs and services that inform, educate, and enrich the public. CPB is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting and the largest single source of funding for public radio, television and related online and mobile services.

CPB is dedicated to ensuring universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services. More than 70% of CPB’s funding is distributed to the more than 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations around the country, including Nebraska Public Media.

CPB does not own, operate or control any of the local public broadcasting stations. CPB, PBS and NPR are three independent organizations.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s federal appropriation for fiscal year 2025 was $535 million. Federal funding of public media is less than 0.01% of the total federal budget, or approximately $1.60 per person per year. This critical seed money is maximized locally to provide essential public services, including children’s educational content and community resources, lifesaving public safety services, and content and services that help engage communities and contribute to a stronger, more connected society.

Public media stations currently cover nearly 99% of the country. Any restrictions on how funds are spent would put universal access—the core mission of public media at risk.

Many small and predominantly rural stations rely heavily on federal dollars to provide both the local and national services that people love, while also leveraging our broadcast infrastructure for essential public safety services. Restrictions on how stations can spend their budget would be devastating and would likely cause some stations to close. This would create gaps in media coverage and the ability to keep the country safe.

Federal dollars also power our valued PBS KIDS programming and educational resources provided through PBS LearningMedia. Restrictions on funds will jeopardize access for the children, parents and educators who rely on these services.

Nebraska Public Media is funded with a mix of public and private funds. Our revenue sources are public funds through federal, state and University of Nebraska appropriations; private funds from individual donations, grants, contracts and underwriting; and self-generated funds.

In the 2023-24 fiscal year, 43.7% of our funds came through state appropriations, 15.7% through federal community service grants, 7.2% through University appropriations, 28.3% through private funds and 5.1% through self-generated funds.

In the 2023-24 fiscal year, 15.7% of Nebraska Public Media’s annual budget, or approximately $4 million, came from federal community service grants. These funds come through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the private nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress to receive federal funds and distribute them to support public broadcasting.

Federal dollars are essential for local public media stations’ ability to provide all Americans in communities across the country with public safety partnerships, educational services and homegrown programming, everywhere, every day, for free.

For over two decades, the American public has ranked public broadcasting as one of the best investments that federal government makes. Federal funding of public media amounts to less than 0.01% of the total federal budget, about $1.60 per person per year. Public media stations cover nearly 99% of the country.

• Public media serves as a safety net, addressing gaps where for-profit outlets cannot operate sustainably, such as in rural and underserved areas.
• More than 70% of federal funds go directly to local stations. As trusted community partners, local stations use the federal investment to provide essential local public services in public safety and education and address unique local needs.
• Local stations leverage each $1 of federal funding to raise nearly $7 from other sources in a highly efficient public-private partnership.

Here in Nebraska, we invest in local journalism and offer gavel-to-gavel coverage of the state legislature; devote over 200 hours per year to broadcasting local sports; produce shows that elevate and celebrate Nebraska’s music, culture, history and ingenuity; develop excellent education programming for children, parents and educators; and provide life-saving emergency alerts and public safety infrastructure.