New ESSA Guidance Released
With the election less than a week away and Congress out of session, this is a good opportunity to update readers on the status of implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Passed in December 2015, ESSA overhauled the nation’s preeminent law overseeing public education, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. As a quick […]
Congress Delays Hard Choices
With the end of the fiscal year approaching and no agreement in sight, members of Congress and President Obama agreed last week on a short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that will keep the government open until December 9. A CR extends an agency’s current funding level for the duration of the […]
Federal Arts Issues Today
With Congress out of session and not scheduled to return until mid-September, August provides all of us an opportunity to take a step back and assess the year to date. NEA Appropriation As we’ve mentioned, NASAA and other arts organizations were successful in petitioning Congress to once again support an increase in funding for the […]
Why an NEA Increase Is Unlikely
As we’ve reported, after months of inaction and infighting, both the House and the Senate took demonstrable steps toward passing legislation funding federal agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in June. To recap, the House of Representatives is considering legislation increasing funding the for NEA by $2 million, while the Senate’s bill […]
Modest NEA Increase Proposed
As we reported a few weeks ago, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) budget, released and considered its draft legislation funding the federal arts agency for fiscal year 2017. In the bill, the subcommittee proposes increasing the NEA budget by $2 million, to $149.85 million. […]
NEA Budget Delay; What to Do Now
A consistent refrain in this column in recent months has been the growing uncertainty about the appropriations process in the U.S. Congress. While it has been mentioned before, it is worth restating that, traditionally by early May, legislation has already been introduced in the House and Senate appropriating funds for the National Endowment for the […]
Speak Up on the Arts
The first week in April is usually a busy period in Washington, not only because tourists flood the city to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom, but because it is without question the most active period in the appropriations season. Committees in both the House and Senate are engulfed in negotiating and passing the […]
Progress and Opportunities
Next week, arts advocates from throughout the country will travel to Washington, D.C., for Arts Advocacy Day. They will be arriving at an interesting time in the evolution of national arts policy. The last of year of any presidential administration generates natural and often healthy questions for any advocacy community. Some are retrospective: Did we […]
Prime Time to Advocate
With the primary season officially under way, I think it is fair to say that the nation is officially “hooked” on the presidential election—and understandably so. The results in Iowa reinforced what we’ve all thought would be the case, that the race for the U.S. presidency will be extremely close, and totally unpredictable. While the […]
2015 Arts Policy Successes
Before we jump into the year ahead—which certainly proposes to be an exciting and important year for arts advocates—let’s take a moment to reflect on 2015 and what a landmark year it was for advancing the arts through policy. For the first time since 2010, Congress appropriated and the president signed legislation increasing funding for […]