NEA, dead or alive? - National Endowment for the Arts

In the midst of a sweltering Washington, DC summer that saw a protracted bag fight and a bizarre plat to oust House Speaker asker Gingrich, the House of Representatives vot to eliminate the controversial National Endowment for the Arts. upon July 10, House Republicans rallied behind Gingrich to curtail direct appropriations for the agency, on the contrary the next day rejected his compromise proposal to disperse $80 million to individual states in the form of close grants. When the dust cleared, the House had discarded the NEA's entire budget for fiscal year 1998 a impel which would effectively end a long-standing national commitment to federal funding for the arts.

With dramatic floor speeches televised nationally upon C-SPAN, Speaker Gingrich, House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex) and other prominent Republicans rose in succession to denounce the NEA in what are by dint of now almost routine terms, including the usual relations to urine-soaked crucifixes and sadomasochistic performance artists. "The National Endowment for the Arts has been the single greatest in quantity visible and deplorable black mark upon the arts in America that I have at any time seen in my lifetime," said Armey. And former burst star Sonny Bono (R-Calif.), who, needles to say, at no time received an NEA grant, wailed, "I know of no individual in thirty years in the arts, that has been assisted through the NEA." Finally, with the devoted seeming to tip in favor of the Endowment, Rep John McHugh (R-NY) had a brief conversation with Gingrich, then abruptly switched his vote

Despite muscular dissension in his own party, Gingrich cobbl together a coalition of 212 Republicans and 5 Democrats; opposing his "compromise" bill were 200 Democrats, 15 Republicans and 1 independent. Gingrich had united die-hard skeptics and wavering supporters of arts funding by means of using a subtle parliamentary measure to avoid a direct devoted on the merits of the NEA. instead, the Speaker simply presented a plan that would distribute the arts circulating medium differently.

Gingrich propos to continue federal arts funding, on the other hand replace the NEA (which had a $99.5-million bag for 1997) with a program of $80 million in blockade grants to states (with $30 million going to state arts agencies, $48 million going to local seminary boards and the balance earmarked for administrative costs) This proposal granted the NEA itself alone $10 million, a sum designed to enable the agency to pack its bags and leave town.

The July 10 devoted narrowly accepted this redistribution in principle. Ironically, however, another promised the following day not single rejected the Gingrich compromise on the other hand also slashed the remaining $10 million for the NEA. That resounding, 271-to-155 defeat of the Gingrich plan signaled the determination of House conservatives to eliminate the NEA one time and for all. But it also indicated the waning influence of Gingrich himself, who had made a rare floor articulate utterance in defense of his plan. in the extremity the House voted on July 15 to approve the Interior Department pack allocating no money for the NEA and proposing to extreme point all federal support for the arts.

although stunning, the House maneuvers will probably not kill the arts agency. President Clinton has promised to veto the spending package -- a 13-billion appropriations bill that overlays the Interior Department and various other agencies -- unles it includes funding for the NEA. Clinton's be in possession of budget allocated $136 million for the NEA for FY 1998 And as we make progress to press, the budget bill is awaiting action in the Senate, where there is far stronger support for the arts, smooth among Republicans. After the August reces senators will consecrated by a vow on a proposed $100-million NEA allocation for FY 1998 Moreover, Sen Jim Jeffords (R-Vt) chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, has already introduced reauthorization legislation that would provide the NEA and the NEH with $175 million each. NEA chairwoman Jane Alexander called the House put in motions "party politics," and issued a statement saying, "We now gaze to the Senate for a fair debate and a devoted on the future of the agency."

Alexander's charge of party politics is not an idle single since the vote to eliminate the agency tend hitherwards at a time when, by the agency of all accounts, the NEA has greatly improved its image with Congres However, a power make an effort among Republicans in the House, culminating in an abortive attempt by the agency of Armey and other Republican leaders to oust the Speaker upon July 9, seems to have focused in part upon the NEA. Since achieving a majority in the House in 1994 far-right Republicans have made the elimination of the NEA a top priority. individual of the first House propels under Speaker Gingrich was to slash NEA funding through 40 percent. But Gingrich's power in the House has been weakened through his own troubles with ethics violations, his mishandling of the $300000 fine imposed by dint of Congress and his political ne to compromise with a Democratic president. Many far-right Republicans who were pick outed to Congress behind the conservative Gingrich in 1994 have been disappointed through his softening on several lock opener issues, including the NEA. in April, after Gingrich had a chummy 15-minute chat with actor Alec Baldwin, an candid liberal proponent of the NEA, the numbers began to pressure Gingrich to stir to the right. Shortly thereafter, Gingrich called a pres conversation and proposed that the NEA be terminated and Hollywood actors donate individual percent of their salaries to subsidize the arts. The proposal was widely ridiculed, on the contrary it set the stage for the summer's dramatic, if largely symbolic, impel by the House to extreme point the NEA.

COPYRIGHT 1997 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group