CONGRESSIONAL UPDATE
Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund
CONGRESSIONAL UPDATE
Today, Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund are on Capitol Hill with a select group of arts advocacy leaders to meet with their Members of Congress, who are key appropriations committee members in charge of federal funding for the arts and culture in America. This week, we are focused primarily on the House and next week will be bringing in a different cohort of arts leaders to focus on the Senate.
This morning, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee - in charge of setting next year’s FY’26 funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities - conducted an official markup hearing.
As in previous years, this House subcommittee recommended cuts to important agencies such as the National Park Service, Environmental Protection Agency, NEA, and NEH. Specifically, the subcommittee voted on a 35% cut to the federal cultural agencies, which would mean $135 million each (down from $207 million) for the NEA and NEH. This is just the beginning of the appropriations process, as you will recall President Trump began by recommending zeroing out these cultural agencies for FY'26. Additionally, there is room for increases in federal funding to take place in the Senate.
We anticipate and will lobby the Senate to recommend a higher FY’26 funding level for the cultural agencies. Simultaneously, we must prevent any House floor amendments from passing that would attempt to cut NEA or NEH funding even further.
HOW YOU CAN TAKE ACTION NOW
Please continue standing up for the arts with us by:
Taking two minutes to send an email to Congress to protect NEA and NEH funding
Calling your members of Congress and telling them that as a constituent you would like to register your support for funding for the National Endowment for the Arts
Posting your story of how NEA funding has made an impact on your community and life on social media and tagging your Members of Congress with the hashtag #ProtectTheNEA​​
Let's grab their attention on all fronts. ​​​​​​Thank you for being an arts champion! ​​
Nina Ozlu Tunceli
Executive Director
Americans for the Arts Action Fund
P.S. Please consider making a contribution to the Arts Action Fund to help us keep you informed on the latest breaking news impacting the arts and culture.
NOTE: Maybe we should insist that congress must remove $71 million worth of art from the walls and pedestals of congress and put it in storage at the Smithsonian. Leave the walls blank, leave only the hangers and pedestals to remind them of the missing art.