Arts Endowment Loses Budget Hike to House GOP Maneuver

Republicans used an eleventh-hour maneuver Thursday night to block what almost became the first significant budget increase for the National Endowment for the Arts that the House has approved since 1992.

Arts advocates had moved to the edge of a surprise victory for the endowment with a preliminary 207-to-204 vote. Their goal was to add $15 million to the $98 million that a fiscal 2001 spending bill contains for the agency, long in the cross-hairs of GOP budget-cutters and at the center of a partisan culture war.

But Republican leaders headed off the move by crafting an amendment that diverted the additional money to Native American health services. That amendment prevailed by voice vote, with most lawmakers unwilling to deny money for health programs serving some of the poorest Americans.

Nonetheless, the move ignited bitter attacks by Democrats, who accused Republicans of cynically using Indians to deny money to the arts agency.

“You use them as cannon fodder in your crusade against the arts,” said Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), adding: “This isn’t about priorities. This is about a political trick.”

Rep. George R. Nethercutt Jr. (R-Wash.), who sponsored the GOP amendment, said it was aimed not at blocking money for the arts but at helping Native Americans.

“We can’t do it all,” he said, citing budget constraints. “I hate to have you [ascribe] bad motives to us.”

The arts endowment began in 1966 with a $2.9-million budget that grew to $176 million by 1992. But under conservative fire for endowment grants that financed controversial art exhibits, its funds began to slowly shrink.

When Republicans took over Congress in 1995, they sliced its budget to $99 million for the 1996 fiscal year and proposed abolishing the agency by 1998. But amid defections from moderate Republicans, the agency survived--though its budget had drifted down to $97.6 million by this year.