KXRM Fox 21: Lamborn "NPR can thrive on its own"
By Tim Elbertson
Colorado's Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn said National Public Radio can survive without government backing – if it changes its mindset.
"NPR has tremendous brand-name recognition," he said. "They can parlay that – if they want to go into the private sector – and raise a lot of money. And they can have a network that's funded in the private sector. But however they do that, whether they can pull that off or not – and I think they can – we have to get our federal spending under control. It's that serious."
Lamborn's funding bill passed the House on March 17, 2011 by a mainly party-line vote of 228-192. It now heads to the Democratically-controlled Senate.
His bill targets NPR – and the approximately $64 million dollars in federal money that goes toward the organization.
Lamborn's plan prohibits public radio stations from using federal money to purchase programming. That cost runs an estimated $56 million each year. It also prohibits the stations from using federal money to pay dues to NPR (and estimated $3 million expense), and stops direct funding from the government to NPR in the range of $5 million.
However, there's another public broadcasting service funded by American taxpayers – and with a much larger budget.
Voice of America (run by the Broadcasting Board of Governors) has an annual budget of $755 million and broadcasts 1,500 hours of news, informational, educational and cultural American-based programming over the airwaves around the world.
Lamborn said that even though VOA's large budget could probably undergo some streamlining, he thinks its mission should be well-funded.
"That's trying to help out with some of the countries (like) Libya, the Northern Africa countries, where democracy needs to get a foothold. And if that works, we're better off in the West with less terrorism and challenges against Western civilization."
His NPR bill is aimed directly at public radio, but since NPR falls under the umbrella of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the said that it, too, should expect to take a hit and suggested that public television adopt a similar business plan.
He laughed off the idea of being called "The Man Who Foreclosed on Sesame Street."
"I don't want to get rid of anything that they do," Lamborn said. "I want to say: 'Hey, Big Bird, we're gonna push you out of the nest because you can fly on your own."
Lamborn referenced H.R.1 (passed by the House on February 19, 2011) and the proposed $172 million in cuts to the CPB annual budget of $420 million. Since the Senate didn't pass an appropriations bill, H.R.1 stalled.
However, CPB hasn't escaped the ax entirely as $50 million was eliminated from CPB's pipeline in the recent stop-gap legislation to keep the government running. That legislation will expire on April 8, 2011.
FOX21 looked at the original H.R.1 appropriations act. We found other humanitarian organizations that didn't appear to be marked for funding elimination.
The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts:
Operations and Maintenance: $22.5 million
Capital Repair and Restoration: $13.9 million
Smithsonian Institution:
Salaries and Expenses: $634.6 million
Facilities and Capital: $123.6 million
But one of the largest appropriations belongs to the House of Representatives itself:
Salaries and Expenses: $1.28 billion (and that's after a $1.5 million cut)
Each of the 435 Representatives earns $174,000 a year in salary. The Majority and Minority Leader make $193,400 each, and the Speaker of the House makes $223,500 – for a grand total of $75.7 million in salaries. That doesn't include wages paid to staff members and other personnel.
Lambornsaid that everything should be looked at.
"We have frozen salaries four of the last five years for Congressmen. Four of the last five years. And every federal employee is getting a freeze for the next two years. So, we are already taking some steps. Maybe we need to look at more," he said.
Link to Original Article: http://www.coloradoconnection.com/news/story.aspx?id=596429