Bill for a Restriction-Free NEA Is Introduced : Congress: Democrat’s measure, backed by the White House, would extend the life of the agency for five years without any controls over the content of art.

A key Democratic congressman on Tuesday introduced White House-backed legislation to extend the National Endowment for the Arts’ life without restrictions on the content of art it supports.

The decision by Rep. Pat Williams (D-Mont.) to introduce the bill supported by President Bush--but without any GOP co-sponsors--was described by congressional observers as a rare tactic intended to outflank Republicans who are threatening to break with the President and propose a radical restructuring of the NEA.

The bill calls for extending the NEA’s life for five years without language that impedes the endowment’s freedom to make artistic judgments.

“I really do think it is ‘High Noon’ for the arts endowment,” Williams said in a telephone interview. Williams chairs a House subcommittee that is responsible for initiating legislation to extend the legislative authorization of the NEA, which expires in September.

Late Tuesday, however, three House Republicans announced an agreement among GOP congressmen for substitute legislation that would impose at least some controls over the content of NEA-funded art. An aide to Rep. Tom Coleman (R-Mo.) said the content-control language would stress “accountability and community standards” for such problem areas as obscene, indecent or sacreligious artworks.

The Republican substitute was to be announced in detail this morning at a Washington press conference. It is the product of negotiations involving Coleman, Rep. Steve Gunderson (R-Wis.) and Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio). Coleman is the ranking minority member of the Williams subcommittee and Regula is the top GOP member of a subcommitee considering NEA appropriations.

Sources in Coleman’s office said the Republican’s alternative NEA plan would also redistribute some portion of the endowment’s budget, sending money to state arts councils and local arts agencies--presumably in the form of block grants.

President Bush announced several weeks ago that he opposes content restrictions on the NEA and formally sent legislation to the Williams subcommittee two weeks ago renewing the NEA with only minor technical changes.

But Republicans on Williams’ subcommittee, led by Gunderson, have indicated that they may attempt to change the structure of the NEA completely, reshaping it in the form of a controversial proposal made over the weekend by the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. The plan calls for 60% of the NEA’s money to go to state arts councils--three times the proportion now allotted--and strip away most of the money now channeled to individual artists and small arts organizations.

There were indications that opposition within the arts establishment to the restructuring proposal was beginning to solidify. The director of the California Arts Council publicly opposed the plan, saying he believed other state art agencies would join him.

In Sacramento, Robert Reid, director of the council, contended that the proposal was counterproductive. “I think it’s too early to abandon the NEA,” he said. “If you send this (issue) out to the states, instead of the focus being on one institution, it’s going to be focused all over the country.”

It also was learned that NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer would attend a Thursday Washington summit of a half dozen major arts organizations at which arts advocates hoped for a showdown. Some congressional observers said that they believed the Gunderson faction on the NEA subcommittee would retreat from the restructuring if arts groups resolve their differences and present a united front opposing it.

Williams said the NEA’s political situation has so damaged the NEA that it may not be possible to complete a five-year legislative renewal without restrictions being imposed on the content of government-funded art.

“I think two things have occurred now that bring the reauthorization to critical mass and both are troubling for the endowment,” Williams said. “The first is that Republicans have decided that, despite the President’s best efforts, this issue shall be partisan.

“The second (is that) the communities within the art world have begun to scramble after the pieces. I have worried about a type of cannibalism occurring within the art community and I worry that that is now becoming reality.”

Williams also indicated that he was studying the revival of a strategic option considered late last year, but abandoned at the time, whose implementation may be made necessary if the NEA situation worsens. Under that option, Williams said, he may seek a one-year, status-quo extension of the NEA, seeking to buy time for the agency by putting over substantive deliberations until 1991 and removing it from the heat of a congressional election year.