Conferees Vote to Keep NEA, Cut Funding

House and Senate negotiators agreed Tuesday to reduce funding for the arts and to bar federal support for artists who denigrate a particular religion or produce sexually explicit materials.

But the conferees did not go along with a House plan to phase out the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in two years.

The joint committee voted to cut the NEA budget by 39% in 1996 to $99.5 billion. Its sister agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities, would receive $110 million in 1996, a 37% cut.

The agencies also won an important technical point--they will be allowed to continue spending money after Oct. 1 even though Congress has not yet reauthorized their existence.