Today, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education ("Labor-HHS") approved the Fiscal Year 2009 appropriations bill that provides funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

The legislation approved by the subcommittee provides CPB a $430 million advance appropriation for FY 2011, as well as $40 million for digital conversion and $27 million for the public radio interconnection system for FY 2009. In addition, the bill provides $24 million in funding for Ready To Learn (RTL). If enacted, the proposed advance appropriation for FY 2011 would represent a $10 million dollar increase over the FY 2010 level.

"On behalf of the tens of millions of Americans who utilize public service media, we would like to thank Chairman Obey, Ranking Member Walsh and the other members of the Labor-HHS Subcommittee for the funding provided to CPB in this bill," said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB. "The subcommittee had to make many difficult decisions in allocating resources given today's extraordinary budgetary pressures. We appreciate that the bill provides CPB with an advance appropriation, which affords public broadcasters a measure of certainty in their business planning, interconnection funding as well as an increase in funding for digital conversion, which will help public broadcasters tap the potential of digital technology."

The next steps for the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill are consideration by the full House Appropriations Committee, tentatively scheduled for June 25th. The Senate Appropriations Committee could mark up its version of this legislation as early as next week.