House Votes Historic Increase in Arts Funding/
Defeats Efforts to Cut NEA Spending

Arts advocates scored an impressive victory on the floor of the House of Representatives as Members of Congress on June 27 voted approval of an increase of $35.6 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), setting a proposed budget for the NEA at $160 million in the passage of the Fiscal 2008 Interior Appropriations Bill, and defeating three amendments targeted at cutting or eliminating funds for the arts endowment.

Debate on the bill's provisions stretched over two days and late into the evenings, as the champions of federal arts funding, led by Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Norm Dicks (D-WA) made the case repeatedly for the value of the public investment in the arts. Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Christopher Shays (R-CT), co-chairs of the Congressional Arts Caucus, joined Dicks in support of the NEA funding increase, citing the value of the arts as "a personally enriching experience," as "engines of job development and economic growth," and "important for the education of our children."

Dicks noted that the NEA "has been transformed since the arts funding debate of the 1990s," crediting former NEA Chair Bill Ivey with restoring congressional confidence in the agency's public purpose, and current Chair Dana Gioia with energizing the agency with new programs and "a commitment to reach beyond the cultural centers of our major cities."

Amendments offered on the House floor by Reps. Rob Bishop (R-UT), Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL), and Doug Lamborn (R-CO) each threatened to cut the arts funding proposed in the bill approved by the Appropriations Committee.

The opponents of the federal arts spending were careful to point out, as Lamborn said, that "opposition to the NEA should not be perceived as opposition to the arts." Their arguments focused on the need for spending restraint and a focus on other budget priorities. Dicks pointed out that the $160 million provided in the bill "only partially restores cuts made...a decade ago" and that with inflation, the amount in the bill "is $100 million below the level provided in 1993."

Brown-Waite recalled NEA-funded projects from the past which she characterized as "controversial, offending and downright disgusting." She said that "Americans are tired of wasteful Washington spending and are unwilling to pay for this so-called art with their tax dollars."

Bishop's amendment, which aimed at cutting NEA funds to the level of $128 million proposed in the President's FY08 budget and redistributing the money to border crossing enforcement, failed by a vote of 156 ayes to 270 noes. Brown-Waite's amendment to cut the arts endowment's funding by the same amount without any redistribution, lost by a vote of 137 and 285. Lamborn's amendment to eliminate entirely the NEA funding lost, 97 to 335.

Action now shifts to the Senate, where the Appropriations Committee has approved its version of the Interior funding bill with an increase in the NEA budget of $9 million over the 2007 level of $124 million.

Many thanks to all of you for your unrelenting advocacy and persuasive contacts with your Representatives in Congress. The actions taken on the House floor this week are testament to your efforts.