Reauthorization Proposal Offered by Congressmen

In an apparent indication that legislative negotiations to renew the National Endowment for the Arts have reached a critical phase, key congressional figures have agreed to cut--to three years from five--the period for which the federal arts agency could be reauthorized.

The disclosure was made Sunday night by Rep. Pat Williams (D-Mont.), chairman of the House NEA reauthorization subcommittee, who was in Southern California for a series of campaign fund-raising events and a meeting with more than 100 film industry figures in Beverly Hills.

Williams said the change in the NEA’s reauthorization term would be an inducement to politicians who want to schedule future endowment renewal legislation so it does not come up in an election year, but who also want to return to the NEA issue sooner than a five-year term would require.

Separately, The Times has learned that three other crucial Republican House members are in the final stages of finding a consensus over the exact wording they will introduce to define specific restrictions on the kinds of artworks the NEA can support.

The restrictive wording, said sources familiar with the negotiations, is expected to be similar to language previously released publicly by Rep. Paul Henry (R-Mich.). The Henry language would oblige the NEA to “ensure” that work it supports “does not deliberately denigrate the cultural heritage of the United States, its religious traditions or racial or ethnic groups” and does not “violate prevailing standards against obscenity or indecency.”

Negotiations over the Henry language apparently involve the Michigan congressman and Reps. Tom Coleman (R-Mo.) and Steve Gunderson (R-Wis.)

In remarks to the meeting in Beverly Hills, Williams emphasized the volatile and delicate nature of talks over the NEA and of the fragile nature of consensus over the agency’s future in the face of continuing political fire from conservative politicians and right wing political and religious organizations.

Williams noted that he grew up in Butte, Mont., in an area in which, decades ago, miners took canaries with them when they entered tunnels. If the birds died or grew faint, Williams said, the miners knew breathing conditions in the tunnels would quickly become unsafe for humans.

“We need a certain habitat of freedom,” Williams said. “Artists are America’s miners’ canaries. If artists can survive in this habitat, we can survive.”