Senators Pleasantly Surprise Arts Supporters Craig, Kempthorne Argue On Behalf Of Nea Funding
Margot Knight sat in front of her television Wednesday, her jaw open in shock.
The director of the Idaho Commission on the Arts was watching Idaho’s Sens. Larry Craig and Dirk Kempthorne on C-Span, making speeches on behalf of the arts on the U.S. Senate floor.
“When they actually say to their colleagues and the public that we think this is important for the arts to survive, that’s important,” a delighted Knight said from her Boise office.
The arts in Idaho are dependent on the National Endowment of the Arts, which was the subject of a U.S. Senate vote Wednesday.
Half of Idaho’s $1.5 million arts budget is funded by the NEA.
So when lawmakers proposed cutting NEA’s budget by 40 percent, Knight and other arts advocates paid attention.
The Senate passed the overall $12 billion spending bill for the Interior Department and other agencies by a 92 to 6 voice vote.
Craig and Kempthorne, both Republicans, did not argue Wednesday for full funding of the arts. They did support an amendment by Sen. James Jeffords, R-Vt., to set the arts endowment funding at $110 million. The proposed 40 percent cut would have meant $99.5 million in arts funding.
The move got bipartisan support.
“These endowments find themselves into small communities,” said Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo. “People who attend these events are generally hard-working, sensible folks.”
But even after Jeffords’ amendment, the arts endowment would be cut by about 30 percent.
“It certainly has taken a cut equal to or more than other programs,” Craig said after the vote. “These are the kinds of priorities and choices that Congress is going to have to make across the board. There will be other reductions to come.
“No way in this budget can full funding be justified.”
The national arts and humanities endowments received $163 million and $172 million respectively last year. The humanities endowment was also cut to $110 million by the Senate.
Other lawmakers thought the cuts were still too severe, however.
“It still leaves the endowments … terribly underfunded,” complained Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark.
The Senate was kinder to the arts than the House, which voted to cut the NEA by 40 percent and envisions phasing out the National Endowment of the Arts in three years.
The Senate appropriations bill has no provision to phase out arts funding. The differences in the two bills must be worked out in negotiations between the two chambers.
The endowment for the arts has been under intense attack from conservatives.
Craig said he has shared their concerns, but that arts programs in Idaho do not worry him.
“I believe the new (NEA) directorship and changes we’ve made in the law…are going to be adequate enough not to allow the kind of projects that were at best pornographic and certainly not able to be viewed by the broad public,” Craig said.
, DataTimes