US House of Representatives Votes to Cut Federal Funding for Public Broadcasting

The U.S. House of Representatives voted today to cut funding for public broadcasting. The measure faces an uncertain future in the Democrat-led Senate, which is unlikely to bring the measure to a vote.3^rd District Representative John Yarmuth voted against the measure in part because he doesn’t like the way the issue has been handled. He says the measure was introduced on Tuesday afternoon and there was little debate before the vote.“If you’re talking about something that could affect almost 20 percent of a public radio station’s budget and would prohibit stations from spending any federal money on programs like A Prairie Home Companion and other widely popular things;" says Yarmuth, "then yeah I think you ought to have public input and discussion.”Yarmuth says Congress’s time could be better spent over the next three weeks finding a way to fund the government by the end of this fiscal year. The coming weeks will focus almost exclusively on the budget in the interest of preventing a government shutdown when the budget expires.