On May 15, the U.S House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee strongly rejected President Trump's budget request to eliminate both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by appropriating $167.5 million in funding for FY 2020! This is an increase for both agencies of $12.5 million over the FY 2019 funding level of $155 million.

We expect that the full U.S. House Appropriations Committee will consider this bill in the coming weeks and action on the House floor will take place sometime in June. 

This is the third year in a row that President Trump has proposed a termination of both the NEA and the NEH in his budget proposal to the U.S. Congress. The past two years, Congress has rejected this request and moderately increased funding for the cultural agencies. This year, the House Interior Subcommittee is sending an even stronger message of the importance of arts funding by increasing the appropriation by $12.5 million.

This funding increase matches the 2019 National Arts Action Summit ask, which would help broaden access to the cultural, educational, and economic benefits of the arts and to advance creativity and innovation in communities across the United States.

We are hopeful that the full U.S. House and then the U.S. Senate will follow the Subcommittee's lead in expanding funding for the NEA and NEH.  

 

Funding Status of Key Federally Funded Arts Agencies and Programs (as of 05/15/19)