House Committee Votes to Maintain Current Funding for NEA

In a somewhat surprising development, the House Appropriations Committee voted today to approve a budget for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) at its current funding level, $146 million, for fiscal year 2015. The action comes less than a week after the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee voted to reduce funding for the NEA to $138 million.

The decision to restore funding for the NEA was made during a mark-up meeting of the full committee, where an amendment making “noncontroversial changes” was passed. Among those changes to the bill was a provision maintaining funding for the NEA at $146 million. With the bill's passage out of committee, the legislation will now be considered on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, where it is certainly possible that an amendment could be introduced to once again reduce funding for the NEA. Therefore, NASAA requests that our members take the following steps:

• If you are represented by a member of the House Appropriations Committee (identified below), please call or e-mail their office to thank them for their vote to restore funding for the NEA.
• If you are not represented by a member of the committee, it would still be tremendously helpful if you could reach out to your member of Congress and urge them to support the NEA's funding at $146 million when the bill goes to the floor.

It is important to note that this development could not have happened without the tremendous outreach conducted by NASAA members, as well as the considerable efforts of arts advocacy organizations. It is a demonstration of the significant impact we have as a community when joining together to work positively with Congress. A special thank-you to Ken Calvert (R-CA), the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee chair, and Jim Moran (D-VA), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, whose leadership was critical.