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(C) assist in the establishment and development of one or more systems of public telecommunications entities throughout the United States; and

(D) carry out its purposes and functions and engage in its activities in ways that will most effectively assure the maximum freedom of the public telecommunications entities and systems from interference with, or control of, program content or other activities.

(2) In order to carry out the purposes set forth in subsection (a), the Corporation is authorized to

(A) obtain grants from and make contracts with individuals and with private, State, and Federal agencies, organizations, and institutions;

(B) contract with or make grants to public telecommunications entities, national, regional, and other systems of public telecommunications entities, and independent producers and production entities, for the production or acquisition of public telecommunications services to be made available for use by public telecommunications entities, except that

(i) to the extent practicable, proposals for the provision of assistance by the Corporation in the production or acquisition of programs or series of programs shall be evaluated on the basis of comparative merit by panels of outside experts, representing diverse interests and perspectives, appointed by the Corporation; and

(ii) nothing in this subparagraph shall be construed to prohibit the exercise by the Corporation of its prudent business judgement with respect to any grant to assist in the production or acquisition of any program or series of programs recommended by any such panel;

(C) make payments to existing and new public telecommunications entities to aid in financing the production or acquisition of public telecommunications services by such entities, particularly innovative approaches to such services, and other costs of operation of such entities;

(D) establish and maintain, or contribute to, a library and archives of noncommercial educational and cultural radio and television programs and related materials and develop public awareness of, and disseminate information about, public telecommunications services by various means, including the publication of a journal;

(E) arrange, by grant to or contract with appropriate public or private agencies, organizations, or institutions, for interconnection facilities suitable for distribution and transmission of public telecommunications services to public telecommunications entities;

(F) hire or accept the voluntary services of consultants, experts, advisory boards, and panels to aid the Corporation in carrying out the purposes of this subpart;

(G) conduct (directly or through grants or contracts) research, demonstrations, or training in matters related to public television or radio broadcasting and the use of nonbroadcast communications technologies for the dissemination of non

commercial educational and cultural television or radio programs;

(H) make grants or contracts for the use of nonbroadcast telecommunications technologies for the dissemination to the public of public telecommunications services; and

(I) take such other actions as may be necessary to accomplish the purposes set forth in subsection (a).

Nothing contained in this paragraph shall be construed to commit the Federal Government to provide any sums for the payment of any obligation of the Corporation which exceeds amounts provided in advance in appropriation Acts.

(3) To carry out the foregoing purposes and engage in the foregoing activities, the Corporation shall have the usual powers conferred upon a nonprofit corporation by the District of Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act (D.C. Code, sec. 29-1001 et seq.), except that the Corporation is prohibited from—

(A) owning or operating any television or radio broadcast station, system, or network, community antenna television system, interconnection system or facility, program production facility, or any public telecommunications entity, system, or network; and

(B) producing programs, scheduling programs for dissemination, or disseminating programs to the public.

(4) All meetings of the Board of Directors of the Corporation, including any committee of the Board, shall be open to the public under such terms, conditions, and exceptions as are set forth in subsection (k)(4).

(5) The Corporation, in consultation with interested parties, shall create a 5-year plan for the development of public telecommunications services. Such plan shall be updated annually by the Corporation.

Interconnection Service

(h)(1) Nothing in this Act, or in any other provision of law, shall be construed to prevent United States communications common carriers from rendering free or reduced rate communications interconnection services for public television or radio services, subject to such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe.

(2) Subject to such terms and conditions as may be established by public telecommunications entities receiving space satellite interconnection facilities or services purchased or arranged for, in whole or in part, with funds authorized under this part, other public telecommunications entities shall have reasonable access to such facilities or services for the distribution of educational and cultural programs to public telecommunications entities. Any remaining capacity shall be made available to other persons for the transmission of noncommercial educational and cultural programs and program information relating to such programs, to public telecommunications entities, at a charge or charges comparable to the charge or charges, if any, imposed upon a public telecommunciations entity for the distribution of noncommercial educational and cultural programs to public telecommunications

entities. No such person shall be denied such access whenever sufficient capacity is available.

Report to Congress

(i)(1) The Corporation shall submit an annual report for the preceding fiscal year ending September 30 to the President for transmittal to the Congress on or before the 15th day of May of each year. The report shall include—

(A) a comprehensive and detailed report of the Corporation's operations, activities, financial condition, and accomplishments under this subpart and such recommendations as the Corporation deems appropriate;

(B) a comprehensive and detailed inventory of funds distributed by Federal agencies to public telecommunications entities during the preceding fiscal year;

(C) a listing of each organization that receives a grant from the Corporation to produce programming, the name of the producer of any programming produced under each such grant, the title or description of any program so produced, and the amount of each such grant; 1

(D) the summary of the annual report provided to the Secretary pursuant to section 398(b)(4).

(2) The officers and directors of the Corporation shall be available to testify before appropriate committees of the Congress with respect to such report, the report of any audit made by the Comptroller General pursuant to subsection (1), or any other matter which such committees may determine.

Right to Repeal, Alter, or Amend

(j) The right to repeal, alter, or amend this section at any time is expressly reserved.

Financing; Open Meetings and Financial Records

(k)(1)(A) There is hereby established in the Treasury a fund which shall be known as the Public Broadcasting Fund (hereinafter in this subsection referred to as the "Fund"), to be administered by the Secretary of the Treasury.

(B) There is authorized to be appropriated to the Fund, for each of the fiscal years 1978, 1979 and 1980, an amount equal to 40 percent of the total amount of non-Federal financial support received by public broadcasting entities during the fiscal year second preceding each such fiscal year, except that the amount so appropriated shall not exceed $121,000,000 for fiscal year 1978, $140,000,000 for fiscal year 1979, and $160,000,000 for fiscal year 1980.

(C) There is authorized to be appropriated to the Fund, for each of the fiscal years 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993, an amount equal to 40 percent of the total amount of non-Federal financial support received by public broadcasting entities during the fiscal year second preceding each such fiscal year, except that the amount so appro

1 So in original. Probably should be followed by "and".

priated shall not exceed $265,000,000 for fiscal year 1992, $285,000,000 for fiscal year 1993, $310,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, $375,000,000 for fiscal year 1995, and $425,000,000 for fiscal year 1996.

(D)1 In addition to any amounts authorized under any other provision of this or any other Act to be appropriated to the Fund, $20,000,000 are hereby authorized to be appropriated to the Fund (notwithstanding any other provision of this subsection) specifically for transition from the use of analog to digital technology for the provision of public broadcasting services for fiscal year 2001.

(E) Funds appropriated under this subsection shall remain available until expended.

(F) In recognition of the importance of educational programs and services, and the expansion of public radio services, to unserved and underserved audiences, the Corporation, after consultation with the system of public telecommunications entities, shall prepare and submit to the Congress an annual report for each of the fiscal years 1994, 1995, and 1996 on the Corporation's activities and expenditures relating to those programs and services.

(2)(A) The funds authorized to be appropriated by this subsection shall be used by the Corporation, in a prudent and financially responsible manner, solely for its grants, contracts, and administrative costs, except that the Corporation may not use any funds appropriated under this subpart for purposes of conducting any reception, or providing any other entertainment, for any officer or employee of the Federal Government or any State or local government. The Corporation shall determine the amount of non-Federal financial support received by public broadcasting entities during each of the fiscal years referred to in paragraph (1) for the purpose of determining the amount of each authorization, and shall certify such amount to the Secretary of the Treasury, except that the Corporation may include in its certification non-Federal financial support received by a public broadcasting entity during its most recent fiscal year ending before September 30 of the year for which certification is made. Upon receipt of such certification, the Secretary of the Treasury shall make available to the Corporation, from such funds as may be appropriated to the Fund, the amount authorized for each of the fiscal years pursuant to the provisions of this subsection.

(B) Funds appropriated and made available under this subsection shall be disbursed by the Secretary of the Treasury on a fiscal year basis.

(3)(A)(i) The Corporation shall establish an annual budget for use in allocating_amounts from the Fund. Of the amounts appropriated into the Fund available for allocation for any fiscal year(I) $10,200,000 shall be available for the administrative expenses of the Corporation for fiscal year 1989, and for each succeeding fiscal year the amount which shall be available for such administrative expenses shall be the sum of the amount made available to the Corporation under this subclause for such expenses in the preceding fiscal year plus the greater of

1 Margin so in law.

4 percent of such amount or a percentage of such amount equal to the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index, except that none of the amounts allocated under subclauses (II), (IIÎ), and (IV) and clause (v) shall be used for any administrative expenses of the Corporation and not more than 5 percent of all the amounts appropriated into the Fund available for allocation for any fiscal year shall be available for such administrative expenses;

(II) 6 percent of such amounts shall be available for expenses incurred by the Corporation for capital costs relating to telecommunications satellites, the payment of programming royalties and other fees, the costs of interconnection facilities and operations (as provided in clause (iv)(I)), and grants which the Corporation may make for assistance to stations that broadcast programs in languages other than English or for assistance in the provision of affordable training programs for employees at public broadcast stations, and if the available funding level permits, for projects and activities that will enhance public broadcasting;

(III) 75 percent of the remainder (after allocations are made under subclause (I) and subclause (II)) shall be allocated in accordance with clause (ii);

(IV) 25 percent of such remainder shall be allocated in accordance with clause (iii).

(ii) of the amounts allocated under clause (i)(III) for any fiscal year

(I) 75 percent of such amounts shall be available for distribution among the licensees and permittees of public television stations pursuant to paragraph (6)(B); and

(II) 25 percent of such amounts shall be available for distribution under subparagraph (B)(i), and in accordance with any plan implemented under paragraph (6)(A), for national public television programming.

(iii) of the amounts allocated under clause (i)(IV) for any fiscal year

(I) 70 percent of such amounts shall be available for distribution among the licensees and permittees of public radio stations pursuant to paragraph (6)(B);

(II) 7 percent of such amounts shall be available for distribution under subparagraph (B)(i) for public radio programming; and

(III) 23 percent of such amounts shall be available for distribution among the licensees and permittees of public radio stations pursuant to paragraph (6)(B), solely to be used for acquiring or producing programming that is to be distributed nationally and is designed to serve the needs of a national audience.

(iv)(I) From the amount provided pursuant to clause (i)(II), the Corporation shall defray an amount equal to 50 percent of the total costs of interconnection facilities and operations to facilitate the availability of public television and radio programs among public broadcasts stations.

(II) of the amounts received as the result of any contract, lease agreement, or any other arrangement under which the Corporation

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