“The House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities by 15%,” writes Ted Johnson in Wednesday’s (7/18) Variety. “The vote on Wednesday was 297-114. That was a boost to arts advocates, who argued that such funding was just a tiny fraction of the federal budget yet offered any array of benefits to local communities. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) proposed the funding cut via an amendment to a larger government funding bill, arguing that the purpose was to make a ‘small dent’ in federal spending…. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, and its ranking member, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), proposed to increase the budget of the NEA to $155 million in the 2019 fiscal year…. Robert Lynch, the president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, said that the tally was ‘one of the largest vote margins in support of the NEA and NEH ever … a testament to the good work of the federal agencies and the power of the arts in our communities, schools, lives, and work.’ ”
Posted July 19, 2018
