“After four years when the National Endowment for the Arts lived under the threat of elimination, President Biden on Friday proposed a 20 percent increase in the budget for the agency to $201 million,” writes Graham Bowley in Friday’s (5/28) New York Times. “If approved by Congress for the 2022 fiscal year, it would be the largest increase—in dollar terms—in the organization’s history, the agency said. The proposal in Biden’s inaugural $6 trillion budget is a sharp turnaround from the years under President Donald J. Trump when … Trump proposed eliminating funding for the agency, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting…. Still, it must survive congressional scrutiny…. ‘President Biden’s budget represents a significant commitment to the arts and cultural sector and reflects the continued importance of arts organizations and cultural workers to the health and vitality of the country,’ Ann Eilers, the agency’s acting chairman, said…. The agency said that the ‘increased investment in the agency will allow it to provide critical support to the arts sector as it struggles to reopen, rehire workers, and generate arts activities that will help fuel the economy.’ ”
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