Whereas Sesame Street will celebrate its 50th year of continuous broadcast on stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States on November 10, 2019; Whereas, as the longest running program on PBS, Sesame Street has continued to bring critical early learning to generations through the beloved and iconic Muppets of Sesame Street, including Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, and Elmo; Whereas Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization that set a new standard with Sesame Street, has created an entire genre of educational media to help children around the world grow smarter, stronger, and kinder; Whereas Sesame Street remains the longest street in the world , reaching more than 160 million children in more than 150 countries; Whereas international programming includes local adaptations of Sesame Street customized to the unique needs and challenges of children in different languages and cultures in such countries as South Africa, Afghanistan, Mexico, and Bangladesh, among others; Whereas Sesame Street remains the most researched children’s educational television program in history, with more than 1,000 independent studies documenting its efficacy; Whereas longitudinal studies have shown that preschoolers who frequently watched Sesame Street scored higher on school readiness tests than less-frequent or nonviewers; Whereas frequent preschool viewing of Sesame Street is associated with higher high school grade point averages; Whereas Sesame Workshop deploys bold educational programs that open doors to opportunity for vulnerable children and their communities through its social impact work; Whereas Sesame Street characters and content have been used to help children of military families cope with the challenges of deployment, relocation, injury, and grief; Whereas Sesame Street’s autism initiative promotes acceptance and understanding and helps children and families face everyday challenges, while fighting the stigma often associated with autism