Hatch Distances Self From NEA Amendments

A Republican senator, who many observers say may hold a key vote in the congressional showdown over the National Endowment for the Arts, distanced himself Thursday from draft amendments prepared by his staff that would impose significant new restrictions on the beleaguered arts agency.

The development, on a day when the NEA situation in Washington was otherwise quiet in anticipation of House and possibly Senate committee action next week, involved Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Hatch, a maverick conservative, has been identified by arts advocates as one of the most crucial votes in the Senate in the NEA battle.

Late Wednesday, Hatch aides circulated two regressive amendments to a pending bill extending the NEA for another five years. The amendments would, among other things, require the arts endowment to pay the legal fees of anyone who successfully filed an obscenity suit against an NEA grantee.

But Thursday, Hatch aides and congressional sources said that the initiative was apparently contrary to Hatch’s directions and that new legislative wording--significantly less restrictive than the texts distributed by the Hatch staff--was being drafted.

Laurie Shivers, a Hatch aide involved in drafting the original amendment proposals, characterized them Thursday as “discussion pieces.” “We’re just looking for alternatives,” Shivers said. “They have not been introduced or endorsed by anyone. The senator hasn’t even decided if he wants to introduce them.”

Meanwhile, endowment officials said NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer has canceled a scheduled trip to San Diego this weekend. Frohnmayer had been slated to address an artists’ town meeting Saturday afternoon and a convention of the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies on Sunday morning.