“In a repeat of last year, the Trump administration’s budget proposal for 2019 calls for eliminating four federal cultural agencies in a move that would save almost $1 billion from a $4.4 trillion spending plan,” writes Peggy McGlone in Tuesday’s (2/13) Washington Post. “Trump’s proposal calls for drastically reducing the funding to begin closing the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The four agencies would share $109 million in 2019, an overall cut of $917 million. Congress rejected a nearly identical plan from the Trump administration last year. … The National Endowment for the Arts would be cut from $150 million in 2017 to $29 million next year, and the National Endowment for the Humanities would be cut from $150 million to $42 million…. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ), co-chairman of the Congressional Arts Caucus, sounded optimistic about continued Congressional support for the agencies…. ‘When drastic cuts to the NEA and NEH were proposed last year, I led a bipartisan coalition to maintain funding for these important federal programs.… We won the legislative fight last fiscal year and will do so again this year.’ ”
Posted February 13, 2018
