Early Saturday morning the House voted to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the institution responsible for distributing federal funds that support 1,300 local public broadcasting stations. The cuts were made as part of a larger budget bill targeting cuts of more than $60 billion in federal funding to numerous public programs. The fight now moves to the Senate.

“Public media remain one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak media landscape, with increasingly strong journalism and educational fare,” said Free Press president and CEO Josh Silver. “Commercial media are in a well-documented free-fall, as advertising revenue sinks and budgets are slashed. At roughly $1.50 per person per year, we spend far fewer tax dollars on public broadcasting than most democratic nations.”

Freedom of speech is one of our nation’s most sacred principles. Our founding fathers understood that this freedom meant nothing if the American people did not have access to the press. For that reason, America’s founders put in place massive subsidies for newspapers. In fact, those subsidies were for a time the second largest federal government expenditure after defense.

Today, in survey after survey, the American people still rank public broadcasting – with its robust news, arts and educational programming -- as one of the best uses of tax dollars. Yet, for years partisans in Congress have played politics with public broadcasting, threatening its already meager funding. Today’s vote is just another attack on this vital institution. It threatens thousands of jobs and could leave fewer and fewer journalists in local communities.

“The same politicians who put NPR and PBS on the chopping block, support corporate tax breaks that deprive the U.S. Treasury of billions in revenue,” said Silver. “These cuts have nothing to do with reining in spending, but everything to do with undermining local news gathering and serious programming.”

A growing number of champions in the House spoke out against these deep cuts. Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), introduced an amendment to restore $460 million in funding for public broadcasting. Rep. Blumenauer wrote a strong letter in support of public media and gathered signatures from more than 90 colleagues. But these efforts couldn't stop those intent on cutting these public programs.

Just as we rely on public schools and public universities to ensure that all American’s have access to education, so too do we rely on public media to inform, educate, and entertain our communities and our families. In just the last week, more than a million people have written Congress calling on them to restore full finding to public media.

Despite this massive outcry, many in Congress remain determined to defy the will of the American people and push through legislation that would take public media away from the public that strongly supports it. As the measure moves to the Senate, more elected officials must stand with the American people against political efforts to undermine the popular programs upon which more than 100 million Americans rely.

It’s time to get back to our core values. It’s time to stop playing politics with our free press.