“Both Democrats and Republicans are voicing support for the National Endowment for the Arts, amid expectations that the Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget request will hit hard at the tiny but popular agency,” writes Jennifer Shutt in Friday’s (3/10) cqnews.com (Washington, D.C.; subscription required). “The NEA receives about $150 million annually out of a more than $4 trillion federal budget…. The NEA has been said in media reports to be on a list of very vulnerable nondefense programs…. ‘I think it has a lot of support,’ said Budget Committee member and Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., when asked how many House GOP members would back continued NEA funding…. Democrats advocating for the NEA’s continued funding are focusing on the program’s economic contributions, role in education and work with veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-N.Y., said programs that link the arts and veterans have proved to be highly beneficial.… The administration formally releases its fiscal 2018 budget next week…. Lawmakers are preparing to defend programs they view as crucial.” Said Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert, R.-Calif., “The arts and the humanities touches every congressional district in the United States…. So you know there is a lot of support for that.”
Posted March 13, 2017
