On Wednesday, July 12, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee voted to fund the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) at $145 million within the FY18 Interior Appropriations bill, $5 million less than its current budget of $150 million.

While a cut is never good, we are encouraged that there was bipartisan support for the NEA in the subcommittee and appropriators did not follow the President’s budget recommendation, which was to allot $29 million “to begin shutting down” the agency.

Next, the Interior bill goes to the full House Appropriations Committee which is scheduled to discuss it next Tuesday, July 18. Your representative serves on this committee and will take part in these discussions. It’s important that you contact their office today and Monday to ask them to support $155 million for the NEA in FY18!