Public Broadcasters Angered Over Orszag's Description of Grant Programs

Public broadcasters took aim at the Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday (May 26) over a blog posting by OMB Director Peter Orszag that described a pair of technology grant programs as "duplicative and wasteful."

The Commerce Department's Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utility Service Digital Transition Grant Program have been in the administration's sights as part of a budget-cutting effort in which it was proposing zeroing out the funding -- $25 million combined -- for programs it said were primarily about the already-completed transition to digital. The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS counter that the two programs are essential.