Michigan attendees at Arts Advocacy Day 2018 on Capitol Hill with former NEA Chairman Jane Chu (center) and MI State Captain Sarah Gonzales Triplett (far right).
The Arts Action Fund is happy to report that today, the U.S. Senate matched the House-set funding level of $155 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Congress responded to your advocacy calls, emails, and visits to save these vital cultural agencies by increasing their annual budgets by $2 million each, despite President Trump’s attempt to terminate them. The NEA and NEH administer thousands of arts and humanities grants to nonprofit cultural organizations, universities, and governmental agencies in all 50 states and 435 congressional districts across the nation.
Congress will next work out in conference a series of unified appropriations bills this fall for the President’s signature, which may still run into road blocks with threats of a government shutdown if funds are not made available for building the controversial wall. Also, on the minds of all legislators and the White House is the all-important mid-term Congressional elections on November 6, 2018. Current control of both the House and the Senate could flip party control from GOP to Democratic, which historically happens when a new President takes office.
Arts Action Fund President & CEO Bob Lynch submitted a comment to ArtNet News stating:
“I am very pleased that the U.S. Senate matched the House-set funding level of $155 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities. The final vote, a resounding 92-6 in favor, is a result of years of arts advocacy by many partners, artists, and state and local arts leaders, along with the 400,000 citizen activist members of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund, who have all worked with members of Congress to share the importance of federal support. I am proud of the work that arts advocates have already accomplished together and the work to come. I also thank arts champion U.S. Senate Interior Subcommittee Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) for expressing her full support for the NEA and NEH on the Senate floor yesterday.”
Help support our grassroots advocacy efforts by contributing to our Campaign to Increase Funding for the Arts in America.
