“The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that President Donald Trump reluctantly signed on Friday includes a boost to federal arts funding,” writes Ted Johnson in Friday’s (3/23) Variety. “The legislation funds the government through Sept. 30, and includes a $3 million boost in the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as for its sister agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities. Their budgets will each be nearly $153 million for the fiscal year 2018. The White House had proposed eliminating funding for the NEA and NEH in its budget proposals this year and last year. But Congress ultimately sets spending levels…. Hundreds of advocates for arts funding lobbied lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week, urging them to retain funding for the agencies. Trump’s budget also calls for the elimination of funding in the fiscal 2019 budget, which has not yet been set. The spending bill also retains the $445 million in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
Posted March 26, 2018
