A Legislative Agenda for Advocacy
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 […]
Back to the Future: Congress Begins a New Legislative Session
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 Advocacy Scores on Capitol Hill
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 […]
Govern, Already!
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 […]
Congress Inches toward 2012 Funding Decisions
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 in September to Confront Deficit
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 […]
House Defeats Attempts to Cut Arts Funding
Before the debt ceiling debate claimed center stage on Capitol Hill at the end of July, the House of Representatives had voted down one amendment aimed at eliminating all funds for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and a second intent on cutting the arts appropriations back by $10 million (the Walberg amendment). Both […]
Arts Education Future Uncertain
What do you say about legislators with a popularity rating in the single When our supporters in Congress talk about the importance of the arts in the lives of Americans, they always mention the value of the arts in education. Indeed, there is no partisan disagreement when it comes to the educational worth of the […]
Congress Begins the Long Haul toward the 2012 Budget
Typically, the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives begins drafting its legislation in early June and sends the funding bills to the floor for votes by the middle of the month. The Senate usually follows suit, taking up its versions of the appropriations measures in committee in late June and early July. Last […]
Congress Steps Up to 2012 Funding Debate; House Budget Takes Aim at NEA, NEH, CPB
In the same week that Congress completed the long debate over 2011 spending and voted final passage of a continuing resolution to complete the current fiscal year’s appropriations, the House of Representatives took up its version of the 2012 budget resolution, passing the measure on April 15 on a party-line vote with all Democrats (and […]