
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 27, 1995                   TAG: 9507270075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BARNEY AND BIG BIRD SAVED BY HOUSE PANEL

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 government jobs.

The House Appropriations Committee has approved legislation that would trim the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's annual budget by only 8 percent. That's a mere surface wound in the context of ongoing budget battles that have gone for the jugular of federal support for cultural institutions such as CPB, 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 funding for CPB. 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 local broadcasters, constituents and devotees of educational television for children.

``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.''

The agency still might have to refight this battle. 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.

by CNB