March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

House axes arts agency> Measure still faces more critical Senate

WASHINGTON — By a dramatic one-vote margin, House conservatives on Thursday took a step toward their long-cherished goal of killing the National Endowment for the Arts. But they would have to duplicate that feat in a less receptive Senate and override a promised presidential veto.

The 217-216 vote temporarily prevented a major embarrassment for the Republican leadership, which had made a dedicated effort to dismantle the agency. And for the moment, at least, it left the House on record in favor of eliminating next year’s money for the NEA, which provides matching grants for arts groups and state art organizations.

Reps. John Baldacci and Tom Allen voted against the measure.

Supporters of the NEA, asserted House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, “want to perpetuate a system of art censorship held in the hands of a group of elitists sponsored by the federal government.”

NEA spokeswoman Cherie Simon said the agency enjoys considerable support among the American public and in the Senate. Too, the White House has said President Clinton would veto any bill that denied money to the NEA.

“We have become a trophy for the conservatives,” Simon said. “This has never been about money. This is about Washington politics, pure and simple.”

The NEA budget is part of a much larger $13 billion spending bill to pay for Interior Department, energy and forestry programs in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Thursday’s vote was on a measure to allow debate on the Interior bill to proceed while denying NEA supporters the chance to offer an amendment that would restore money for the arts agency.

The NEA budget this fiscal year is $99.5 million, down nearly 40 percent from two years ago, when Republicans gained control of Congress and launched their campaign to end all funding.

The bill, as it emerged from committee, contained only $10 million to shut down NEA operations, and the GOP leadership confirmed the plan was to eliminate that sum as well.

When several dozen Republican moderates who support the NEA protested and threatened to stall action on the $13 billion bill, the leadership held a late-night meeting Wednesday to propose what was billed as a compromise — a plan to send $80 million in federal arts money directly to the states in the form of block grants, with 60 percent going to school districts and 40 percent to state arts commissions.

That didn’t satisfy 15 Republicans who voted with all but five Democrats against the leadership’s rule for considering the bill. “This is a very sad time for me as a Republican member of this House,” said Rep. Michael Forbes, R-N.Y., who said supporters of the NEA deserved at least a vote on its future.

Democrats said the issue was not money but philosophy. Republicans, said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., backed spending on B-2 bombers that would be enough to pay for the NEA for 108 years.

“It’s about philosophy, it’s about ending arts experience for millions of Americans all for taking a political stand,” said Rep. Joseph Moakley, D-Mass.

But NEA opponents said the arts would continue to flourish with private backing. “Let’s put the money down to the states, down to the children and take it out of the liberal hands of the NEA,” said Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif. “What this rule does is eliminate the organization, not the arts.”

For a decade, conservatives have made the NEA a prime target for elimination, citing NEA grants for artistic endeavors they said were pornographic or blasphemous. The NEA has said that such grants are very rare.

“With today’s vote,” said Carole Shields, president of the liberal People for the American Way Action Fund, “the religious right is one step closer to claiming this important agency for its trophy case.”


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