Arts

H.R.726 – To prohibit Federal funding of National Public Radio and the use of Federal funds to acquire radio content.

Introduced in House (01/30/2017)

This bill prohibits federal funding to organizations incorporated to: (1) make radio programs available for broadcast over noncommercial educational radio broadcast stations, networks, and systems; (2) cooperate with foreign broadcasting systems and networks in international radio programming and broadcasting; (3) assist and support such noncommercial educational radio broadcasting pursuant to the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967; (4) pay dues to such organizations; or (5) acquire radio programs by or for the use of a public broadcast radio station.

The Communications Act of 1934 is amended to remove provisions that require the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to use a percentage of funds from the Public Broadcasting Fund to make grants for: (1) the production of public radio programs by independent producers and production entities and public telecommunications entities or by producers of national children’s educational programming or programs addressing the needs and interests of minorities, or (2) the acquisition of such programs by public telecommunications entities. The bill also eliminates a requirement that a percentage of the amounts that the CPB distributes to public radio stations be used solely for acquiring or producing programming that is distributed nationally and is designed for a national audience.