tive telecommunications services for all the citizens of the Nation; 181

(6) it is in the public interest to encourage the development of programming that involves creative risks and that addresses the needs of unserved and underserved audiences, particularly children and minorities;

(7) it is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to complement, assist, and support a national policy that will most effectively make public telecommunications services available to all citizens of the United States; and

(8) a private corporation should be created to facilitate the development of public telecommunications and to afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and control.182

Corporation Established

(b) There is authorized to be established a nonprofit corporation, to be known as the "Corporation for Public Broadcasting", which will not be an agency or establishment of the United States Government. The Corporation shall be subject to the provisions of this section, and, to the extent consistent with this section, to the District of Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act.

Board of Directors 183

(c)(1) The Corporation for Public Broadcasting shall have a Board of Directors (hereinafter in this section referred to as

181 Paragraph (5) was amended by Public Law 97-35, approved August 13, 1981, 95 Stat. 357, 725, by adding all that follows after "excellence."

182 Section 296(a) was amended to read as above by Public Law 95-567, approved November 2, 1978, 92 Stat. 2405, 2411. The section previously read as follows:

CONGRESSIONAL DECLARATION OF POLICY

SEC. 396. (a) The Congress hereby finds and declares—

(1) that it is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of noncommercial educational radio and television broadcasting, including the use of such media for instructional purposes;

(2) that expansion and development of noncommercial educational radio and television broadcasting and of diversity of its programming depend on freedom, imagination, and inititive on both the local and national levels;

(3) that the encouragement and support of noncommercial educational radio and television broadcasting, while matters of importance for private and local development, are also of appropriate and important concerns to the Federal Government;

(4) that it furthers the general welfare to encourage noncommercial educational radio and television broadcast programming which will be responsive to the interests of people both in particular localities and throughout the United States, and which will constitute an expression of diversity and excellence;

(5) that it is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to complement, assist, and support a national policy that will most effectively make noncommercial educational radio and television service available to all the citizens of the United States;

(6) that a private corporation should be created to facilitate the development of educational radio and television broadcasting and to afford maximum protection to such broadcasting from extraneous interference and control.

183 Subsection 396(c) was amended to read as above by Public Law 97-35, 95 Stat. 357, 725-26, August 13, 1981. Section 1225(a)(2) of the statute stated:

(2)(A) The amendment made in paragraph (1) of the statute shall not affect the continuation in office of any individual serving on the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on the date of the enactment of this Act.

(B) The first 5 vacancies occurring on the Board after October 1, 1983 (other than any vacancy in the office of Chairman) shall not be filled, so as to reduce the membership of the Board to 10 members in addition to the Chairman of the Board.

Continued

the "Board"), consisting of 10 members appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. No more than 6 members of the Board appointed by the President may be members of the same political party.

(2) The 10 members of the Board appointed by the President (A) shall be selected from among citizens of the United States (not regular full-time employees of the United States) who are eminent in such fields as education, cultural and civic affairs, or the arts, including radio and television; and (B) shall be selected so as to provide as nearly as practicable a broad representation of various regions of the Nation, various professions and occupations, and various kinds of talent and experience appropriate to the functions and responsibilities of the Corporation.

(3) Of the members of the Board appointed by the President under paragraph (1), one member shall be selected from among individuals who represent the licensees and permittees of public television stations, and one member shall be selected from among individuals who represent the licensees and permittees of public radio stations.

(4) The members of the initial Board of Directors shall serve as incorporators and shall take whatever actions are necessary to establish the Corporation under the District of Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act.

(5) The term of office of each member of the Board appointed by the President shall be 5 years, except that any member appointed to fill a vacancy occurring prior to the expiration of the term for which his predecessor was appointed shall be appointed for the remainder of such term. No member of the Board shall be eligible to serve in excess of 2 consecutive terms of 5 years each.

(6) Any vacancy in the Board shall not affect its power, but shall be filled in the manner consistent with this Act.

(7) Members of the Board shall attend not less than 50 percent of all duly convened meetings of the Board in any calendar year. A member who fails to meet the requirement of the preceding sentence shall forfeit membership and the President shall appoint a new member to fill such vacancy not later then 30 days after such vacancy is determined by the Chairman of the Board.

Subsequently, subparagraph (B) of the statute was revised. Public Law 97-410, 96 Stat. 2043, 2044, Jan. 3, 1983, amended section 1225(a)(2)(B) to read as follows:

(B) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (c) of section 396 of the Communications Act of 1934, in the case of the offices of director the terms of which expired March 1982, persons appointed to fill two of such vacancies existing as of December 13, 1982, shall be appointed for terms which shall expire on March 1, 1984 and shall not be representative of the political party having a majority of the directors of the Board on December 13, 1982. Persons appointed for a term beginning March 1, 1984, to fill the vacancies occurring in such offices the terms of which, by reason of the preceding sentence, expire on March 1, 1984, shall not be filled by persons representing the political party having a majority of the directors of the Board on March 1, 1984. Persons appointed on or after March 1, 1984, to fill vacancies in the two such offices shall be appointed for terms of five years. On March 1, 1984, there are abolished those five offices of director the terms of which, without application of the preceding provisions of this paragraph, expire on such date. In administering the provisions of this paragraph a director is a minority member of the Board if he is not a member of the political party to which the majority of the directors of the Board are members.

Election of Chairman and Vice Chairman; Compensation 184

(d)(1) Members of the Board shall annually elect one of their members to be Chairman and elect one or more of their members as a Vice Chairman or Vice Chairmen. 185

(2) The members of the Board shall not, by reason of such membership, be deemed to be officers or employees of the United States. They shall, while attending meetings of the Board or while engaged in duties related to such meetings or other activities of the Board pursuant to this subpart, be entitled to receive compensation at the rate of $150 per day, including traveltime. No Board member shall receive compensation of more than $10,000 in any fiscal year. While away from their homes or regular places of business, Board members shall be allowed travel and actual, reasonable, and necessary expenses.

Officers and Employees

(e)(1) The Corporation shall have a President, and such other officers as may be named and appointed by the Board for terms and at rates of compensation fixed by the Board. No officer or employee of the Corporation may be compensated by the Corporation at an annual rate of pay which exceeds the rate of basic pay in effect from time to time for level I of the Executive Schedule under section 5312 of title 5, United States Code. 186 No individual other than a citizen of the United States may be an officer of the Corporation. No officer of the Corporation, other than the Chairman or a Vice Chairman, may receive any salary or other compensation from any source other than the Corporation for services rendered during the period of his employment by the Corporation. All officers shall serve at the pleasure of the Board.

187

(2) Except as provided in the second sentence of subsection (c)(1) of this section, no political test or qualification shall be used in selecting, appointing, promoting, or taking other personnel actions with respect to officers, agents, and employees of the Corporation.

184 Subsection 396(d) was amended to read as above by Public Law 97-35, 95 Stat. 357, 726-27, Aug. 13, 1981.

185 Paragraph (d)(1) formerly read as follows:

ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN; COMPENSATION

(d)(1) Members of the Board shall annually elect one of their number as Chairman. The members of the Board shall also elect one or more of them as a Vice Chairman or Vice Chairmen. In the former paragraph the words "President shall designate one of the members first appointed to the Board as Chairman; thereafter the" were deleted from the first sentence by Public Law 95-567, approved November 2, 1978, 92 Stat. 2405, 2412.

186 This sentence was first added by section 303(a) of Public Law 95-567, approved November 2, 1978, 92 Stat. 2405, 2412. Also, section 303(b) of Public Law 95-567 stated:

(b) The amendment made by subsection (a) shall not be construed to reduce the annual rate of pay of any officer or employee of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in any case in which (1) such officer or employee was appointed or named to any position in the Corporation before the date of the enactment of this Act; and (2) the annual rate of pay for such position, as in effect on such date of enactment, exceeds the maximum rate of pay established in section 396(e)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended by subsection (a).

187 Paragraph (e)(1) was amended by Public Law 97-35, approved August 13, 1981, 95 Stat. 357, 727, by deleting "the Chairman and any" before "Vice Chairman" and inserting "a" in its place; and by inserting "for services rendered" after "Corporation" the sixth time it appears in the paragraph.

Nonprofit and Nonpolitical Nature of the Corporation

(f)(1) The Corporation shall have no power to issue any shares of stock, or to declare or pay any dividends.

(2) No part of the income or assets of the Corporation shall inure to the benefit of any director, officer, employee, or any other individual except as salary or reasonable compensation for services.

(3) The Corporation may not contribute to or otherwise support any political party or candidate for elective public office.

Purposes and Activities of Corporation

(g) 188 (1) In order to achieve the objectives and to carry out the purposes of this subpart, as set out in subsection (a), the Corporation is authorized to

188 Section 396(g) was amended to read as above by Public Law 95-567, approved November 2, 1978, 92 Stat. 2405, 2412-14. § 396(g)(2)(H) was previously amended by Public Law 94-192, approved December 31, 1975, 89 Stat. 1100. Prior § 396(g) read as follows:

PURPOSES AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CORPORATION

(g)(1) In order to achieve the objectives and to carry out the purposes of this subpart, as set out in subsection (a), the Corporation is authorized to

(A) facilitate the full development of educational broadcasting in which programs of high quality, obtained from diverse sources, will be made available to noncommercial educational television or radio broadcast stations, with strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature;

(B) assist in the establishment and development of one or more systems of interconnection to be used for the distribution of educational television or radio programs so that all noncommercial educational television or radio broadcast stations that wish to may broadcast the programs at times chosen by the stations;

(C) assist in the establishment and development of one or more systems of noncommercial educational television or radio broadcast stations throughout the United States;

(D) carry out its purposes and functions and engage in its activities in ways that will most effectively assure the maximum freedom of the noncommercial educational television or radio broadcast systems and local stations from interference with or control of program content or other activities.

(2) Included in the activities of the Corporation authorized for accomplishment of the purposes set forth in subsection (a) of this section, are, among others not specifically named—

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

(B) to contract with or make grants to program production entities, individuals, and selected noncommercial educational broadcast stations for the production of, and otherwise to procure, educational television or radio programs for national or regional distribution to noncommercial educational broadcast stations;

(C) to make payments to existing and new noncommercial educational broadcast stations to aid in financing local educational television or radio programing costs of such stations, particularly innovative approaches thereto, and other costs of operation of such stations;

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

(E) to arrange, by grant or contract with appropriate public or private agencies, organizations, or institutions, for interconnection facilities suitable for distribution and transmission of educational television or radio programs to noncommercial educational broadcast stations; (F) to hire or accept the voluntary services of consultants, experts, advisory boards, and panels to aid the Corporation in carrying out the purposes of this section;

(G) to encourage the creation of new noncommercial educational broadcast stations in order to enhance such service on a local, State, regional, and national basis;

(H) conduct (directly or through grants or contracts) research, demonstrations, or training in matters related to noncommercial educational television or radio broadcasting and the use of nonbroadcast communications technologies for the dissemination of educational television or radio programs.

(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, except that the Corporation may not own or operate any television or radio broadcast station, system, or network, community antenna television system, or interconnection or program production facility.

(A) facilitate the full development of public telecommunications in which programs of high quality, diversity, creativity, excellence, and innovation, which are obtained from diverse sources, will be made available to public telecommunications entities, with strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature;

(B) assist in the establishment and development of one or more interconnection systems to be used for the distribution of public telecommunications services so that all public telecommunications entities may disseminate such services at times chosen by the entities;

(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 any188A 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 tele

188A Section 6 of P.L. 100-626 amended §396(g)(2)(B)(ii) by striking out "contract or." The amendment is effective October 1, 1989.