President's proposed FY10 budget axes rural pubcasting grants

President Obama's fiscal 2010 budget, delivered to Congress today, has targeted rural public broadcasting grants of $5 million for elimination. In a White House blog posting, Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote: "The USDA made these grants to support rural public broadcasting stations' conversion to digital broadcasting. That transition is now almost complete." Here is the president's letter to Congress on the budget. CPB, PBS, NPR and APTS issued a joint statement this afternoon praising the president's recommendation of $502 million for CPB. More on pubcasting's budget requests in this February Current story.