Public TV Seems to Be Dodging Funding Bullet : House: Panel vote to cut CPB budget by only 8% is seen as a victory for agency. But efforts to kill it may resurface.

Public television and radio, only recently under withering attack from conservative budget-cutters in Congress, have emerged virtually intact from a process that had seemed ready to put Big Bird and Barney out of their tax-supported jobs.

The House Appropriations Committee has approved legislation to trim the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s annual budget by only 8%. That’s a mere surface wound in the budget battles that have gone for the jugular of such cultural institutions as the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Earlier this week, the House panel defeated an amendment that would have eliminated all spending for CPB, which gets 14% of its budget from federal funds. The agency, once derided by House Speaker Newt Gingrich as a “little sandbox for the rich,” subsidizes the Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio and other broadcasting outlets across the country.

The vote reflects the remarkable staying power of an operation that Republicans vowed to abolish in the heady days after the GOP seized control of Congress. But that was before lawmakers were hit by a blizzard of protest from broadcasters, constituents and devotees of educational children’s television.

“There are too many children in America who grew up on ‘Sesame Street,’ ” said Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.), principal author of the appropriations bill that includes the CPB money. “People feel this is the only real quality children’s programming.”

“It is too early to declare victory, but things seem to be going in the right direction,” said Michael Shoenfeld, senior vice president for corporate communications at CPB.

Indeed, the agency might have to fight this battle again on several fronts. There will likely be another effort to strip CPB funds from the appropriations bill when it goes before the full House, perhaps as early as next week, although Porter predicted the effort would fail. The issue could be reopened later this year or next, when Congress is expected to consider separate legislation to reauthorize the whole agency. And many Republicans say they remain committed to phasing out federal support for CPB but want to ensure enough time to let the agency find other sources of revenue.

“Everybody assumes CPB’s federal funding will be gone,” said Rep. Scott L. Klug (R-Wis.), a leading proponent of privatizing federal functions. “The question is how long the phaseout is.”

Klug said the phaseout would likely be more than three years, which could delay the day of reckoning until early in the next century. That gives CPB plenty of time to win a reprieve.

“It is extremely frustrating,” said Tim Graham, a CPB critic at the conservative Media Research Center. “By 1998, the House may be back in Democratic hands. The pessimistic conservative would say kill it now before we lose power.”

At stake in the debate is a tiny sliver of federal spending. CPB’s budget, which Congress appropriates two years in advance, is set for $260 million in fiscal 1997. The bill approved by the House committee cuts 1998 funding to $240 million. The committee rejected the amendment to abolish all funding by a resounding 40-14 vote, with 17 Republicans joining in opposition.

That seems to put public broadcasting in a stronger position than almost anyone would have imagined early this year, in light of conservatives’ vehement campaign to eliminate federal support for cultural institutions.

Already the House has voted to cut the endowments for the arts and humanities by 40% each, and is moving to abolish the endowment agencies after two years. In the Senate, an appropriations subcommittee voted Wednesday to go along with the 40% cut for the arts endowment. They added back only $15 million for the humanities endowment, making its budget reduction about 34%. Another effort to restore funding for the arts endowment is expected when the bill goes to the full appropriations committee on Friday.

The CPB seemed headed for a similar fate when Republicans took control of Congress last fall. Conservatives saw a golden opportunity to abolish an agency that supported broadcasting they believed was biased against conservative causes. Within days after being named House Speaker, Gingrich (R-Ga.) said he hoped to “zero out” funding for CPB.

“The only group lobbying [for public broadcasting],” Gingrich said earlier this year, “are a small group of elitists who want to tax all the American people so they get to spend the money.”

But before long, lawmakers were deluged with complaints from a much broader constituency: Fans of “Masterpiece Theatre.” Baby boomer parents who see “Sesame Street” as the last refuge of decent kids’ TV. Local broadcasters who depend on the lifeline of federal funds.

“Very early on, when it appeared that there would be an effort to zero it out, the message came back loud and clear in every congressional district, especially rural ones, this had a high place in American priorities,” said Porter.

“They are a very skillful, resilient group,” said Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), a leading CPB opponent who chairs the committee that oversees the agency. “They’re an inside-the-Beltway group that is very protective of themselves.”

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