by Americans for The Arts
As you may know, the Trump Administration released their budget for FY 2018 on March 16th, two business days before Arts Advocacy Day. The proposal called for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and other cultural programs. Over 100,000 messages have been sent to Capitol Hill by advocates to oppose these cuts – please take 2 minutes to send a message if you haven’t yet.
Yesterday, the Administration sent a new, detailed proposal outlining $18 billion in cuts in the current budget year – FY 2017. The Administration calls for a $15 million cut to the NEA and an equal, proposed cut of $15 million to the National Endowment for the Humanities. This proposal, if approved, would reduce their respective budgets from $148 million to $133 million for FY 2017. The last time the NEA budget was this low was over a decade ago!
You may recall that back in December, the incoming Trump Administration asked the GOP leadership to push the unfinished FY 2017 appropirations bill into the following year so they might weigh-in on it. A Continuing Resolution (CR) was put into place that provided the equivalent of $148 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. Yesterday’s proposed $15 million cut is the Administration “weighing-in” on the appropriations process.
Fortunately, some GOP members of Congress are now reflecting that it is a bit too late for these kinds of cuts to take place. President Trump is proposing significant cuts to agencies nearly half-way through the fiscal year, which started on October 1.
Take two minutes now to keep the pressure up. Let your elected representatives know where you stand on this proposed funding cut. Tell them to oppose Trump’s destructive budget proposals—for both FY2017 and FY2018.
Use this easy link to reach your members of Congress now. Thank you for being an arts advocate.
