Public media isn’t our politicians’ plaything; it’s our nation’s mainstay for crucial news and diverse and alternative programming. And while a few lawmakers are fervently calling to gut funding for public media, many others are bellowing back that we must protect America’s public media.

The House of Representatives’ proposed budget entirely guts funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Members of the House will vote on the budget tomorrow.

In the last four days, a coalition of media watchdog and progressive groups, including MoveOn.org, CREDO and Free Press, have collected more than one million signatures opposing the Republican plan to defund NPR, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “This is clearly political, not budgetary,” said Timothy Karr, campaign director at Free Press. “Every time the GOP is in power, they offer a new measure to kill public broadcasting. But there’s something they don’t take into consideration—the American people love public broadcasting. Republicans in Congress would do themselves and their constituents a service if they’d focus on solving the economic mess instead of posturing about public TV and radio.”

This week members of Congress joined Americans from around the country in taking strong stands for public broadcasting. Rep. Blumenauer (D-Ore.) has been rallying support from his colleagues to stand up against those who want to foreclose on Sesame Street and send Big Bird packing. Nearly 100 members of Congress have joined him, signing on to a letter opposing cuts to federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Today, Blumenauer joined Reps. Ed Markey (D-Ma.) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) to offer an amendment that would restore the funding that was cut out of the budget initially.

See Rep. Blumenauer’s remarks on the House floor below:

Rep. Bill Owens also spoke on the House floor about the impact public media has in rural communities:

You can help support their effort by calling your member of Congress right now and ensuring they support the amendment.