The Score | NEA in the News

For the past several months, funding for the National Endowment for the Arts has gained significant public attention. On January 19, the Trump transition team announced that it planned to propose deep cuts in domestic spending that included eliminating the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities in FY 2018. When an initial White House budget proposal was officially released on March 16 doing just that, NEA Chairman Jane Chu noted that the agency would continue to operate as usual while the FY18 budget process makes its way through Congress. Since January, arts leaders and allies from around the country have been calling, e-mailing, and visiting members of Congress from both political parties to voice their support for the NEA, both in the then-unfinished FY17 budget and in the FY18 debate over spending priorities. In April, eleven House Republicans were among the more than 150 members of Congress signing a letter calling for an increase in federal funds to the endowment in FY18. Several commentators have noted that per-person spending by the NEA is higher in rural, Republican-leaning states. In early May, Congress created a catch-all FY17 spending bill to fund the government through September 30, including a $2 million increase each for the NEA and NEH. In the coming weeks, Congress will turn its attention to setting the federal budget for FY18.