“The Trump administration has again proposed the elimination of federal funding for the arts and humanities, public television and radio, libraries and museums,” reports Petty McGlone in Monday’s (3/18) Washington Post. “For the third time in as many years, the White House has proposed a federal budget that would shutter the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—which supports PBS and NPR—and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Like last year, the plan provides small appropriations for each agency to facilitate its orderly demise. The cuts total $897 million of the $4.7 trillion 2020 spending plan. ‘Most of the eliminations and reductions in this volume reflect a continuation of policies proposed in the 2018 and 2019 President’s Budgets that have not yet been enacted by the Congress and highlight the Administration’s efforts to eliminate wasteful or unnecessary spending,’ according to the budget document, which was released Monday. The White House released initial budget figures March 11. President Trump called for eliminating these agencies in his first two budget plans, but the Republican-led Congress funded them both times, with the NEA, NEH and IMLS each seeing small increases in 2019.”
Posted March 19, 2019
