Earlier this week, Congress released the details of its massive FY 2014 Omnibus spending bill. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) have each been allocated $146 million for the year. Our online petition helped lead to way for this to happen!
In fact, this new funding level is an increase over last year’s, since all federal budgets were previously subject to a 5.5% sequester cut. The sequester cut brought the NEA’s budget down to $138 million last year. However, this year Congress is suspending these sequester cuts. NEA will now have the full spending power of $146 million to invest in community-based arts programs across the country.
Thanks to Arts Action Fund members taking action we successful prevented a 49% cut to the NEA’s budget! With the 2014 midterm election right around the corner, we will continue leaning on our membership to provide a strong voice for the arts.