Washington, D.C. --- As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to debate a funding bill tomorrow that includes $100 million in cuts for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today called on the House to restore the funds when it takes up the Fiscal Year (FY) Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill tomorrow.

Pallone, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the 25 other Democratic members of the committee sent a letter yesterday to House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and ranking Democrat David Obey (D-WI) asking that the funds be restored.

"Public television and radio broadcasters provide vital local services and quality programming on which millions of Americans rely," Pallone and his colleagues wrote in their letter. "Public broadcasting offers unique noncommercial educational children's programming and local community outreach designed to improve early reading skills in young children and prepare teachers for the classroom. Through these efforts, public broadcasting has had a tremendous, positive impact on American society by improving our Nation's literacy and expanding efforts toward lifelong learning."

"At a cost of $1-per-year to the individual American taxpayer, public broadcasting is indeed one of the real bargains in our federal government," Pallone said. "Every New Jersey parent knows the invaluable contribution the programs and services public broadcasting offers to their children cannot be found anywhere else. It's time Republicans in Congress recognize this value, and join us in supporting an amendment tomorrow to restore full funding to public broadcasting."