Before I begin, I would like to tell you what a great personal thrill it is be working with an organization as wonderful as NASAA, and to let you know that I look forward to meeting you at NASAA’s conference in October. In last month’s column, my predecessor, Tom Birch, discussed briefly an upcoming budgetary…
Last month, the House Appropriations Committee, as expected, approved legislation cutting appropriations for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) by almost 10%. The bill would hold arts spending in fiscal year 2013 at $132 million, down from current funding of $146.3 million. The Obama administration had proposed an increase in arts spending to $154.255…
Congress is going through the beginning throes of the 2012 legislative session with very little energy devoted to its most basic responsibility: the appropriation of funds necessary to exercise the functions of the federal government. The House has passed a budget, devised by Budget Committee Chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), that reduces discretionary spending for…
The 2013 fiscal season kicked off on Capitol Hill in late March with the House passage of the budget resolution authored by Budget Committee chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). The Ryan budget plan, with its strong partisan position on spending and revenues, drew little bipartisan support on the floor vote, signaling months of deadlock while…
At the start of each year’s congressional session, NASAA works with the other arts service organizations engaged in legislative advocacy to draw up our collective policy agenda for the coming months. Our leading issue with every Congress is the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and each year, in time, Congress addresses…
Congress convened in mid-January to begin its second legislative session. Regarding appropriations, we might expect something of a rerun this year, such as proposals to eliminate or severely cut NEA funding. Again, arts advocates will look to shore up the support of Republican and Democratic champions who took up the cause in the 2012 appropriations…
NASAA’s bipartisan approach to advocacy delivered a strong position for state arts agencies in the final 2012 budget plan Congress approved for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Throughout the year, NASAA relied on its Republican and Democratic contacts in Congress and in the states to ensure funding support for the arts in the…
What do you say about legislators with a popularity rating in the single digits? That would be the U.S. Congress last month, scoring an all-time low of just 9%, according to a New York Times poll. Because policymakers like to make comparisons, consider that the politically unpopular bankers got a 23% approval ranking, and the…
In the 112th Congress, every routine fiscal measure–whether it’s a continuing funding resolution to carry spending into a new fiscal year, or a vote to raise the federal debt limit–has become an occasion for deeply partisan bickering and last-minute solutions to avoid a government shut-down or imminent credit failure. It didn’t used to be this…
Congress returns from its August recess the second week of September to resume work on budget and appropriations for the 2012 fiscal year. While the House Appropriations Committee has cleared 9 of the 12 funding bills, only 6 have passed the House floor. The FY2012 Interior Appropriations Bill, with funding included for the National Endowment…
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