American for the Arts Action Alert

We are sharing the advocacy update below from Americans for the Arts about a new threat to NEA and NEH funding. Rep. Grothman (R-WI) introduced an amendment yesterday that would cut funding for both the arts and humanities endowments by $23 million each.

Please take a moment to read the message below and let Representative Peter Welch know your thoughts! You can click here or call Rep. Welch’s office toll-free at 1-888-605-7270.

ACTION ALERT

Yesterday, the House Rules Committee green-lighted an amendment sponsored by Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI). His amendment would cut funding to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by $23 million each – a 15% cut to each agency. Take two minutes to take action now to call on your Member of Congress to reject this amendment. They need to hear from you about why the arts are vital to your community and our country!

We’ve seen amendments to cut these agencies before (the last one was in 2011)-and defeated them. Now is the time to be sure your member of Congress votes down the amendment.

The good news is that the House and Senate proposals, which would instead increase funding for the NEA and NEH, are strongly supported on a bipartisan basis. In fact, record numbers of members signed letters earlier this year calling for a minimum of $155 million for each agency, which is met in the House and Senate bills. Now, House members will be held to account with this upcoming floor vote this week.

What’s Rep. Grothman’s rationale?

Rep. Grothman told the Rules Committee members last night that Congress should support President Trump, and President Trump wanted to terminate both of these agencies. To Rep. Grothman, this a small step to rein in spending and should be a vote for “Trumpsters,” as he put it.

He repeated terribly misguided and tired arguments (like “private charities should do this work,” “it’s a local government role solely,” “we can’t afford it,” and “cutting arts spending is looking out for our children and grandchildren”) that just don’t stand up. Check out ten reasons to support the arts and share with your friends.

Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund will be working throughout the day to sound the alarm on this amendment which aims to weaken our nation’s cultural agencies. This amendment is a key vote to allow members of Congress to show their support for the arts by voting no!

Take two minutes to weigh in now and ask you representative to vote no on the Grothman amendment this week during floor consideration of the House Interior bill.