Support for $178 Million to NEA Called ‘Overwhelming’ : Arts: The chairman of a House panel expects the program to survive a new round of attacks.

The chairman of the House subcommittee dealing with the $178-million funding of the embattled National Endowment for the Arts said Wednesday he believes that “overwhelming” support will ensure continuation of the program despite a new volley of attacks from congressional colleagues.

Rep. Pat Williams (D-Mont.), after hearing a dozen congressional witnesses testify before his Education and Labor subcommittee on postsecondary education, told reporters he feared that the NEA was in jeopardy last year because of public furor over its sponsorship of assertedly pornographic and blasphemous art works.

“But we are now finding, both inside and outside Congress, overwhelming support for reauthorization,” he said. “The only question is whether there should be restrictions on the money.”

Williams said he opposes any censorship powers for the endowment, but the majority of witnesses called for a ban on tax dollars for projects that are obscene or attack religion. Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita) and Mel Hancock (R-Mo.) demanded outright abolition of the NEA, and others asked for restrictions to bar support of exhibits such as the Robert Mapplethorpe photographs that sparked public outcry last year. But Reps. Rosemary Oakar (D-Ohio), Ted Weiss (D-N.Y.) and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-Colo.), a silversmith who claimed to be one of the few artists in the House, warned against congressional attempts to impose censorship.

Oakar deplored “all this negative stuff which I think is somewhat sick” aimed at about 20 of 302,000 grants. She praised President Bush for increasing the requested amount this year and for his opposition to censorship language.

“We have stayed out of it, and we ought to keep staying out of it,” she said of proposals for congressional restrictions on the NEA.

Members of the subcomittee accused opponents of unfairly branding endowment backers as supporters of pornography.

“I haven’t done that, but I can’t say that those who do are illogical,” Rohrabacher replied in an exchange with Rep. Paul B. Henry (R-Mich.), the only Republican member of the subcommittee supporting unrestricted NEA funds.

Williams said he hoped this would be the final hearing on reauthorization of the NEA’s budget and that he would have a bill ready to go to the House floor by “late spring.” Earlier, representatives of artists’ groups announced the formation of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression, decrying controls on the government arts program. At a breakfast news conference, they said they would work to defeat Rohrabacher and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), leader of Senate efforts to block funds for allegedly obscene or blasphemous works of art. “Mr. Rohrabacher next year will be going back to his surfboard,” predicted Jeffrey Chester, Los Angeles representative of the National Alliance of Media Art Centers.

Charlotte R. Murphy of Washington, executive director of the National Assn. of Artists’ Organizations, said Helms and other conservatives “have made this a campaign issue and we’ll be prepared to respond. We have support in every congressional district.”