State Arts Grants Proposed in Place of U.S. Endowment

Republican House leaders unveiled a new strategy Thursday in their war against the National Endowment for the Arts, proposing to abolish the agency and as an alternative funnel $80 million in federal money directly to states for funding arts projects.

The House conducted a lengthy debate on the proposal that went into Thursday night, but a vote was not scheduled until today. A close procedural vote earlier Thursday indicated the issue could be decided by a razor-thin margin.

Even if the House ends up voting to kill the NEA, the agency and its supporters will be far from throwing in the towel. The Senate--where the bill funding the NEA will go next--traditionally has adopted a more positive attitude toward the agency. And the Clinton administration, which has requested raising the NEA’s budget from its current $99.5 million to $136 million, has threatened to veto any bill that aims to close the agency.

In the House, Thursday’s proposal surfaced after it became clear that a number of moderate Republicans would join with Democrats to scuttle the GOP leadership’s original plan of slashing the NEA’s budget to $10 million, a move that would effectively kill the agency.

Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.) proposed the amendment that, to soften the blow of eliminating the 33-year-old NEA, would send $80 million directly to the states. The money would be divided into three parts: 37% would go to state art commissions, 60% would be directed to local school boards to fund school-based art activities, and the remainder would cover administrative costs.

Arguing for the amendment, Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) said: “If NEA is the only way to get culture in America, then we got a problem.”

He was joined in NEA-bashing by House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), who called the agency the “single most visible and deplorable black eye on the arts in America that I have seen in my lifetime.”

House Democrats reacted strongly against the Republican proposal.

“It’s like throwing a 10-foot rope down an 11-foot well to rescue someone,” said John Joseph Moakley (D-Mass.).

He was joined by Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), who called the proposal a fraud and said, “I urge people not to be taken in by this sham of a power play.”

At the center of the debate is an agency many Republicans see as a waste of taxpayers’ dollars, especially when its funds have gone to art exhibits or projects with sexual and political content.

The new GOP proposal was an attempt to satisfy conservatives who want to abolish the agency, as well as those who support federal funding for the arts.

Earlier Thursday, NEA supporters had attempted to modify a House parliamentary rule that would have allowed a vote on maintaining the agency’s current $99.5-million budget. But they lost on a 217-216 vote.

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Earlier this week, a number of moderate Republicans expressed their support of the NEA to House Speaker Newt Gingrich--an indication that they would possibly help Democrats restore the agency’s budget if it came to an up-or-down floor vote. But by winning the close procedural vote, GOP leaders managed to avoid such a vote.

Cherie Simon, spokeswoman for the NEA, said the Republican proposal to let states allocate arts-related money would make it harder for smaller and mid-sized arts groups to raise private funding.

“Organizations around the country will tell you over and over again, repeatedly, that having a grant from the NEA is far more valuable in leveraging money in the private sector,” she said.

The NEA budget is part of a much broader appropriations bill that includes funding for the Interior Department and a hodge-podge of other agencies. After the House finishes voting on amendments to that measure, the overall bill will come for a final vote--probably today.