Defeats Republican Efforts to Cut Arts Funding

Defeats Republican Efforts to Cut Arts Funding

Washington, D.C. - Yesterday, Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-04) joined a majority in the U.S. House to defeat Republican efforts to drastically reduce funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and Humanities (NEH). McCollum supported passage of a critical amendment funding these two important agencies that support arts education and research programs. The amendment to the Department of the Interior Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (H.R. 2361) will increase NEA funding by $10 million and NEH funding by $5 million for a total appropriations of $131.3 million and $127.6 million.

"The increased funding is essential to local organizations and allows them to continue supporting the creation, preservation and presentation of the arts here in Minnesota," said McCollum, a member of the National Council on the Arts, the advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts, and a member of the Congressional Arts Caucus. "Investments in the arts are investments in the human spirit but also in the economic development of our community."

The nonprofit arts industry alone generates $134 billion annually in economic activity, supports 4.8 million full-time equivalent jobs and returns $10.5 billion annually in income taxes. Minnesota arts organizations have received nearly $3 million in 48 grants from the NEA, the third-highest total of all states.

"Minnesotans and all Americans look to the arts for education, entertainment and enlightenment," said McCollum.

In addition to this funding victory, McCollum recently sent a letter to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee requesting $53 million for the Arts in Education programs in the Education Department appropriations legislation.

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