While 24-hour cable-news talking heads are calling the debt-ceiling-debate play-by-play at full volume, arts organizations are trying to get a word in about funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
On July 19, the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations sent to the U.S. House of Representatives bill H.R. 2584, which allocates funding for the “Department of the Interior, environment, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012.”
The Appropriations Committee’s report, which, on July 12, committee member New Haven’s U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, voted against, reads in part: “The Committee recommends $135,000,000 for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), $19,690,000 below the fiscal year 2011 enacted level and $11,255,000 below the budget request.”
As indicated in the committee’s report, the enacted NEA appropriation for fiscal year 2011 is $154 million.
Today, Americans for the Arts and other arts advocates are keeping their eyes on legislation sponsored by Rep. Tim Walberg, R‑Mich., that would reduce NEA funding by an additional $10.6 million.
An-Ming Truxes, director of the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism’s Arts Division, said in an e‑mail that “40 percent of NEA’s funds appropriated for grants are allocated to state arts agencies and regional arts agencies. So a cut in NEA funding will result in decreased funding for Connecticut’s State Arts Office. There will also be less money for direct grants to arts organizations from the NEA.”