Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 2005

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - June 16, 2004)

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Slaughter-Shays-Dicks amendment to increase the amount of funding in this bill for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In fact, I support the amount that President Bush requested for these agencies. President Bush requested an $18 million increase for the NEA and a $23 million increase for the NEH.

In truth, I would be even happier to support President Reagan's budget for these critical agencies, which was substantially larger. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in this Congress do not seem to think that Presidents Bush and Reagan were right in this respect. Instead, they continue to insist on flat funding for the NEA and only a tiny increase for the NEH, but the fact is flat-level funding is really a cut in the budget. It means that the resources that the NEA needs to do its job gets stretched thinner and thinner every year.

We have a chance today to take a small step in rectifying this shortsightedness today. Whether it is the educational value, the cultural enrichment, or the substantial economic windfalls that the arts and humanities create, the NEA and the NEH are two of the best investments this Nation makes and two of the most productive parts of our budget, although two of the smallest parts of our budget.

When we shortchange the NEA, we deprive our young people of arts education programs that help them develop critical thinking skills and train them to be the next generation of artists, and we deprive our communities of a $134 billion business that generates almost 5 million jobs, $89 billion in household income, and tens of billions of dollars in tax revenues.

When we shortchange these agencies, we deprive ourselves of orchestras, nonprofit theaters, dance companies, opera companies, and touring groups that bring the benefit of the arts and culture to smaller communities throughout our country. We deprive ourselves of the important work of interpreting and preserving our Nation's heritage. For just a fraction of 1 percent of our Federal budget, the NEA and the NEH yield dividends that far outweigh the investment, but the majority leadership has chosen to ignore all of this.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment is a very modest attempt to increase the NEA budget by just $10 million, not even the $18 million suggested by President Bush. It is an attempt to begin undoing the damage that this Congress has done to these agencies in the last 10 years. I urge my colleagues to support this extremely modest amendment, and I thank the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter) and the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) for offering this amendment.

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