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Budget Cuts Series 2021: Elimination of PBS, National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities
Our Budget Cuts Series enters the 2021 fiscal year with a third post in an unending series. There's so much to cover from the heinous budget that Trump's cronies unveiled in mid-February 2020.
For the fourth year in a row, the Trump administration proposed budget cuts that would kill the federal cultural agencies that support arts, humanities and public television stations across the country.
Trump’s 2021 budget calls for $30 million to close out the National Endowment for the Arts and $33.4 million to shutter the National Endowment for the Humanities.
It also calls for $23 million to close the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and $58 million over two years to shutter the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Arts-education programs are also discontinued in the Education Department budget....
“For more than 50 years, the NEA has expanded access to the arts for all Americans, awarding grants in every congressional district throughout all 50 states and U.S. territories, particularly benefiting communities that have fewer opportunities to experience the arts,” Robert Lynch, president and chief executive of Americans for the Arts, said in a statement.
Some arts leaders are hopeful that Congress will continue to increase the funding of cultural institutions even as Trump calls for their elimination.
Previous budget proposals by Trump along these lines have been soundly rejected by Congress, which has increased funding in each of the past three years for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The total budget for those agencies in fiscal year 2020 is $162.25 million, a 10-year high.
Focusing on the NEH among the ones Trump seeks to eliminate. NEH is a stellar organization that we don't think about day to day but impacts every one of us, especially children.
Since its creation in 1965, NEH has established a significant record of achievement through its grantmaking programs. Over these five decades, NEH has awarded more than $5.7 billion for humanities projects through more than 65,000 grants.
This public investment has led to the creation of books, films, and museum exhibits, and to ensuring the preservation of significant cultural resources around the country. Each year more than 2,400 teachers participate in NEH-sponsored workshops and institutes....
NEH initiatives such as A More Perfect Union are supporting national convenings on K–12 civics education and projects that advance civic engagement and promote a deeper understanding of American history and culture.
NEH grants have helped preserve and increase access to the essential records of American history, including the papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and other presidents, as well as those of significant writers, thinkers, and entrepreneurs such as Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thomas Edison.
NEH grants have reached every part of the United States and provided humanities programs and experiences to benefit all of our citizens.
Sources:
https://www.neh.gov/news/neh-statement-proposed-fy-2021-budget