After a two-week recess for the Easter and Passover holidays, Congress returned to session this week for what may be one of the busiest work periods of the year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has set an ambitious goal of completing all 13 fiscal year 2020 appropriations bills before July 4. Given that the House…
Last month, when President Trump submitted his budget proposal to Congress for fiscal year 2020, it included a recommendation to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). While this was not unexpected, it is nevertheless disappointing, particularly given the critical leadership, programming and support that continues to be developed and implemented at the arts…
2019 is off to a busy start. As you are aware, last month, with another government shutdown only days away, members of Congress and President Trump were able to reach an agreement to fund all federal agencies until the end of this fiscal year (September 30). In doing so, the National Endowment for the Arts…
When the federal government partially shut down, the 116th Congress began its term under unusual circumstances, forced to deal with complicated negotiations from day one. Now that the government has completely reopened, congressional leadership is working simultaneously both to find a solution that will fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year (the…
Last week the new session of Congress, which included 101 new members of the House of Representatives and 10 new senators, was sworn into office. While leaders in both parties have major initiatives, the most immediate issue facing this new crew is an old one. The partial shutdown of the government, which began on December…
With the 2018 midterm elections finally resolved and members of Congress from both parties thinking about 2019 and beyond, the one sentiment that appears to be unifying legislators from both parties is their desire to wrap up their work and adjourn for the remainder of the year. Despite this unifying preference, at the time of…
A central goal for congressional leadership this year was to be able to complete work on all 12 appropriations bills, through regular order, before the fiscal year ended on September 30. This was an ambitious goal, as work on the fiscal year 2018 budget was not wrapped until late March, putting members of Congress about…
The House and Senate returned to session last week, after adjourning in August for the summer recess. They come back for an uncertain period of time, as the midterm elections are approaching and members from both parties want to head home for as long as possible to campaign for themselves and their colleagues. There are,…
As we reported last week, the Senate passed legislation that would increase the appropriation for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) by $2 million, to $155 million, for fiscal year 2019. That action matched that of the House of Representatives, which voted for the same earlier this summer. While these moves put the NEA…
With the July 4th recess in the rear-view mirror and the midterm elections only four months away, members of the House and Senate expect to be working furiously over the next few months. So much work is left on the agenda that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already announced his intention to cancel…
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