President Trump Is Trying to Eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts—Again—in His Just-Released 2021 Budget Proposal

According to a section of President Donald Trump’s just-released
budget proposal for 2021, titled “Stopping Wasteful and Unnecessary
Spending,” the activities funded by the National Endowment for the
Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities would be cut,
because they “are not considered core Federal responsibilities, and
make up only a small fraction of the billions spent each year
by arts and humanities nonprofit organizations.”

The budget requests $30
million to conduct an orderly closeout of the NEA beginning in
fiscal year 2021. Similarly, the proposed budget requests $33.4
million to end the NEH also at the same time.

Also targeted by Trump are the Institute of Museum and Library
Services, for which $23 million has been requested for its orderly
wind-down, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the
shutdown of which would be “part of the Administration’s plan to
move the Nation towards fiscal responsibility and to redefine the
proper role of the Federal Government.”

“We see our funding actively making a difference with
individuals in thousands of communities and in every
Congressional District in the nation,” a spokesperson for the NEA
told Artnet News in an email. In fiscal year 2019, the endowment
gave out more than 2,400 awards amounting to $122.4 million
every state, the spokesperson said. “Those grants are leveraged by
other public and private contributions up to
9:1, significantly increasing the impact of the federal
investment.”

This isn’t the first time Trump has made a bid to eliminate
these organizations. Watchdog and advocacy group Americans for the
Arts pointed to the president’s previous attempts in a
statement from CEO Robert Lynch: “For the fourth-straight year, the
Trump administration has proposed to eliminate the National
Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities,
the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting. Clearly, both chambers of Congress have
consistently rejected this unilateral effort on the
administration’s part. Americans for the Arts will again work with
Congress to not only reject this misdirected budget request, but
further increase funding for these important cultural
agencies.”

Last week, Lynch urged the House Interior Appropriations
Subcommittee to increase NEA funding to $170 million next year by
allocating an additional $7.75 million above its 2020 funding. “For
context, these cultural agencies are still inching their way back
up to levels once enjoyed two and a half decades ago,” he said.
“This is a step towards restoring that funding level,
notwithstanding adjustments for inflation.”

Lawmakers have previously rejected Trump’s numerous attempts to
shut down these entities. “Congressional appropriators have chosen
in the previous three years to reject the administration’s call for
termination of the agency, and instead provided increased funding,”
said Lynch. “I expect to see similar action by Congress this
year.”

Lynch praised Congressional Arts Caucus co-chairs Chellie
Pingree, a Democratic Representative from Maine,  and Elise
Stefanik, a Republican from New York, who help make up
“our pro-arts majority in Congress,” he said, “and the
bipartisan work of Congress and the House Interior Appropriations
Subcommittee in upholding the arts” and rejecting proposed budgets
calling for the elimination of the NEA in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

The post President Trump Is Trying to Eliminate the National
Endowment for the Arts—Again—in His Just-Released 2021 Budget
Proposal appeared first on artnet News.